The power of social contagion
You’re nothing without others
Understanding the power of social contagion could give us the advantage in building the brands of the future.
To desire what others are having ”or wanting to keep up with the Joneses” is a result of our evolutionary coding. We are highly social creatures. What we wear, the slang we use, the food we like, the music we listen to, our mood, places we want to see, and according to recent research, even our weight, is determined by the community we live in. We shape our communities and our communities shape us.
To test the three hypotheses, MU researchers collected data from 153 hominid (humans and our ancestors) skulls from the past 2 million years. Examining the locations and global climate changes at the time the fossil was dated, the number of parasites in the region and estimated population density in the areas where the skulls were found, the researchers discovered that population density had the biggest effect on skull size and thus cranial capacity.
The findings suggest that brain size increases the most in areas with larger populations and this almost certainly increased the intensity of social competition. When humans had to compete for necessities and social status, which allowed better access to these necessities, bigger brains provided an advantage.
The growing population and the social dynamics among tribes favoured the genes that could conform the best. Those genes attracted more friends, mingled in more number of social gatherings, had more impact on the society, communicated more and had a better chance at successfully jumping to the next generation. We all should stop for a minute and thank our ancestors for our existence. If they hadn’t started running when they heard their neighbor run, and survived a deadly predator because of their social foresight, we would not be here.
When we yawn the person across from us on the bus yawns and so does the bus driver and so does the person who is looking at the bus to cross the pedestrian street.
We constantly communicate with or without the involvement of our rational brain
Considering the magnetic power of social dynamics, contagion and social conformity, we can easily claim that we are living in the best of times. “Gossip paired with reciprocity allows karma to work here on earth, not in the next life”, psychologist Jonathan Haidt has once said. The digital revolution accelerated by wide internet access, smart mobile devices and tablet penetration is creating fascinating web of connected, networked, hyper-aware societies.
Ten years ago, less than 2% of the population was online. Now that number is over 25% globally, and close to 100% in many countries. Two-thirds of the world’s population has mobile phones. By 2020, 5 billion people will be on the web — and 10 billion people will have mobile phones. Two- thirds of us sleep with our mobile phones right beside us. So that’s around 3.3 billion people whose smart phones are the last thing they see before they go to sleep and the first thing they look at when they wake up.
This new complex and rich addition to our social habitat is posing endless possibilities for any brand that is touching people with products, services or policies. Everyone is talking about the rise of the digital consumer and every brand owner wants to take part in this new world.
The brands that have succeeded in achieving a fundamental paradigm shift in humanizing their brands, see the world from the dynamics of the social networks that their brand takes part in. That shift in thinking, brings them loyal advocates, giving them license to take part in the communities where their users are interacting, which in turn gives them the chance to create engaging communities where the consumer is willing to take part. Unfortunately, few brands understand the importance of social dynamics.
The era of humanising brands will have ground breaking implications in how modern communication and branding will be executed
Without humanising the brand, without showing a genuine interest in understanding your target audiences’ needs and frustrations, a digital strategy will just be using the same old preaching techniques only this time, in new media platforms. What’s difficult is not entering the digital social space, but entering the people space. Without uncovering why people do the things they do, no company can utilize an effective and beneficial digital strategy. Both for its costumers and for itself.
You see, we are highly social creatures. The fundamentals of how a community operates are the same whether it’s a real life community or an online Facebook group of like minded people. Today’s all time online and connected communities are just a brand new part of a grand old tradition.
Babies learn by imitating. We can empathize with what others are feeling by imitating their facial gestures. Our success in society pretty much depends on our ability to live in harmony with our social networks. What others are doing, thinking, feeling, liking, preferring, rejecting, promoting, or loathing hugely impacts our choices.
Our opinion about the world is influenced by our idea of what others are doing. We are affected positively and negatively by the people that surround us. If a college student thinks that smoking and drinking in college is the social norm, then his tendency to indulge in these activities will increase. He will feel comfortable imitating his idea of the norm.
What modern research on cognition and social behavioural psychology is teaching us today, has changed the way policy makers, NGO’s and even brands communicate to their target audiences. After all their objective is to create positive behavioural change in the lives of the people they communicate with.
Some states in the USA are adopting large-scale education campaigns where they use statistics to correct misperceptions and communicate not the number of smokers but the percentage of tobacco free teens. This strategy not only improves the accuracy of social perception (not everyone smokes) but significantly decreases the percentage of smoking and excessive drinking among college kids. Switching the statistics inside out, creates a new positive norm rather than stressing the negative one.
Until recently, brand managers and advertising agencies preached perception change as the road to success. If people perceive brands in a certain way, then their propensity to choose that brand will increase. That was the accepted paradigm and it’s true to a point. But if you want to change behaviour, you cannot do it by just changing perception. Since no person is an island and no one decides alone, behaviour change goes beyond perceptions. You have to show or create an environment where the positive behaviour is displayed and shared for people to willingly congregate around it.
Brands that understand social dynamics look at the passions and pressures consumers feel in their social groups
They search for human solutions to help their customers overcome pressure or embrace their passions. They help them help each other. They promote co- creation and contagions of ideas, opinions and experience. They organize festivals because they know that shared experiences are more contagious than individual ones. They look into the decision making patterns and understand who influences who.
To give an example; Not every brand’s social network’s priority should be to have a twitter account. If you have a highly technical product that people talk about in specialised forums, then taking an active role in those environments is far more important than worrying about a Twitter presence. Go to where the conversation is, listen and take part and accept the fact that an average person’s intuition makes him/her trust a stranger’s experience with a brand more than that brands own declarations.
At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler found that weight gain spreads virally across one’s social network. When your friends gain weight, so do you. That’s a disturbing thought. But they also found that this phenomenon can be a two-way street: weight-loss can also spread virally across your social network. If the people around us are overweight, not only is our perception of body shape and size altered (we have new ideas of normal) but our way of life starts changes (we start eating more unhealthy, exercise less) increasing our own probability of becoming obese by 45%.
What they found is the exteremely magnetic power of networks. According to a research they conducted on social groups over a period of 20 years they discovered that:
-We shape our network. We want to associate with people who are like us
-Our networks shape us. A person who has no friends has a very different life than one who has many
-Our friends affect us. What flows through the ties between people is also important because it influences how we are
-Our friends’ friends’ friends affect us. We can easily see the three degrees of influence on our decisions
Now take a closer look at dieting
If you write “different diet“ in your browser you will hit almost 46 million results. According to a recent survey an average 45-year-old woman has been on 61 diets in her lifetime. Apparently, the world is in no shortage of diet methods. Then why are more than 1.4 billion adults, are overweight? ıf you are managing a diet brand, you better start wondering why most diets that start on Monday end up in disappointment some time midweek. The biggest part of the dieting struggle takes place between our self control (desire to lose weight) and our need to conform or take part in the society. Every dinner invitation, every Friday bar, every social program on our calendar poses a threat to our self control and our diet.
The weight loss industry can benefit largely form understanding this struggle and the role social connections play in it. Research shows us that dieting is more likely to fail if done in seclusion and loneliness. Research from American Psychology Institution shows the success impact of dieting within a social group. They compared two groups while dieting. The first group got the diet and standard support. The second group got the diet with the support but also were recruited either with three family members or a very close friend. At the end of 4 months, 76% of the first group completed treatment compared to 95% of the second group. What’s more striking is that only 24 % of the fist group maintained their weight loss between month 4 and 10 where as a record percentage of 65% of the second group maintained the weight loss and succeeded in making life style changes.. (PsycINFO Database Record © 2010 APA.
The chances of adhering increase dramatically once you start dieting with a buddy, with your partner or take part in a weight loss community of people sharing the same goals. The idea of social dieting opens up new possibilities for people wanting to lose weight. Making weight loss social, fun and motivating is the missing link that brands are finally paying attention.
Adhering to dieting and changing eating habits is not much different from fighting with alcohol abuse
The success behind Weight Watchers and AA is based on the same principles. They both recognize the importance of social networks and the impact they have upon us. They also understand the human struggle with habit changing. Instead of trying to change the habit loop, they look into how habits are formed.
They look into what triggers that habit and change the reward that follows that trigger that gives a similar satisfaction to the original habit. In both cases, our social life is an important trigger that make us go drinking or fall from our diet. Imagine the power of Friday afternoons for both groups. In order to offer the same reward they get at a bar (socializing and letting off steam) AA has built a system of meetings and companionship that strives to offer as much escape, distraction and catharsis as a Friday night bender.
Without understanding the real award an alcoholic is chasing, it’s impossible to create a solution that will help him gain control over his drinking. The same goes with eating. A social event is too tempting to resist. If eating and drinking make it more fun for everybody, it ‘s very difficult to stick to one’s diet when you are in the heat of the situation. Weight Watchers meetings create the anticipation of getting together with like minded people and focus collectively on their common goal. The group increases every individuals self control.
As we learn more about decision making, habit forming and how contagious decisions in both real and virtual communities, we will start looking at communication and branding with a new light.
It’s also promising to see that the market research industry is also stepping up and tuning in to social connections as both a metaphor to how we connect to brands but also how inter group relationships define the way brands are accepted. GFK’s ‘human relationship’ model is the most recent addition to this school of thinking. Understanding consumers’ emotional and social connections as the most important power that drive brand success, will also help all of us to move away from the traditional brand funnel.
As the old saying goes, “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.”
