Bandwagon Effect

Abstract

This paper will give brief introduction to the deep meaning behind the word groupthink and the extent to which it is prevalent in our society today , at home, work places, institutions, entertainment places and its effect on consumer buying behavior. Then there will be an elaborate discussion on one of the well documented form of Groupthink in behavioral psychology called Bandwagon effect and its contribution in shaping consumer behavior by looking from different aspects of marketing and products. This effect relates to the spread of different beliefs among people even without any strong evidence and affects the psychology and personality of the person. This mainly helps people to identify themselves and categorize into groups which eventually become the reference group for all their behavior , adaptations and decisions. This forms the basis of the formation of groups, societies pertaining to which is a major part of the social psychology. At last but not the least some real life examples can be will be added to give insights from a practical dimension rather than just theoretical perspective to help understand and develop the idea even more. These examples will never occur to us until we try to think in this particular perspective and realize than since childhood we have been a part of them.

Introduction

Human being is a social animal. We cannot survive alone that is the reason that over the years they have developed thousands of such bonding and relationships which will bind the mankind together divide into countries, states, cities, societies, communities, localities and further down into individual families. The major fact is that this whole system is deeply rooted in the existence that they normally overlook such connections if not particularly focused upon. These have become the subconscious part of the human brain, the hidden part of the iceberg. This is greatly reflected in the behavior and psychology of individuals. Although it is presumed that the decisions are taken on individual basis but its process is based on collective thinking. This brings in light, a major factor of consumer behavior affecting the emotions, decisions, day to day life, as small as choice of a lollipop to choosing a life partner - Groupthink or Herd behavior as can be referred at times. This is not something new or innovative and that is the most interesting part of this topic. It exists with abundant signs of its presence but people calmly choose to ignore them in their race to be completely unique from each other.

Groupthink

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon which gives importance to a group decision at times neglecting the individual perspectives and avoiding the critical evaluation of other alternatives but try to follow a herd behavior. A lot of research work has been done on this field. The greatest fault of this behavior is loss of individuality, uniqueness. Although this has led to a lot of disasters in the past due to the maintenance of this status quo mainly in case of critical decision making or change management in any big multinational but looking from a marketers perspective this has somewhere led to the beginning of symbolic purchases, brand loyalty and formation of target markets where some part of the behavior of a larger group tends to be in the same direction without reasoning out much. Looking at the Neo- Freudian theory mostly a consumer does not know exactly what he wants but decides on his means to fulfill his needs taking idea from an ideal group which he imagines he belongs to or his near ones or some role model he relates to. This happens unknowingly most of the time.

The research shows that this phenomenon is mainly linked to the negative side of decisions making where people rule out their individual rationality and try to become collectively rationale by trying group cohesion and forcefully coming to a consensus. The study of groupthink was conducted by Irving Janis in 1972 and according to a journal by Thomas Hensley and Glen. W. Griffin he described this as a process by which a small group of decision makers are subjected to powerful stress may become more concerned with achieving concurrence among their members than in arriving at carefully considered decisions.