The Third Lever of Influence

The power of social proof is so substantial thet people who watch a presidential debate on t v are said to be significantly swayed by the magnitude and direction of the applause at the live event. As chaldini writes in influence, there is a phenomenon called clacking, said to have begun in 18 20 by a pair of paris opera house habitues named sorton and porchet. The men were more than opera goers; they were business men whose product was applause. And they knew how to structure social proof to incite it.