The happiest place on earth is a zoo. Actually, it’s a theme park. Disneyland, right? It has mice and ducks and all kinds of animals running around, but they’re uncaged. I call it a zoo because it’s crowded.
The crowds don’t keep you away though, do they? In fact, they have the opposite effect.
Same goes for a restaurant. You peer into an empty one and quickly conclude the food must suck. The one next door has a waiting list and gads of people out front anxiously waiting to be summoned by their little buzzer. Must be the tastier of the two.
Psychologists, sociologists and new media marketingologists call this powerful dynamic “social proof.” Most of us less scientific sheeps don’t call it anything. We simply choose to follow the crowd.
