 Okay, let's get on to a big one here. Let's talk about social proof. Now. This is a very important bias Now social proof is the bias that makes us think and act like others and it has been implemented in our brains to reduce the complexity of certain decision making processes that we have I want to tell you guys a little story in which social proof was at play The other day I was at uni and I was in the computer labs. There was a bunch of other engineering students there studying using the Excel spreadsheets and whatnot The file arm went off One of the students said Don't leave the room. It's been going off the whole day It's just a test Just staying here. Let's continue working To my surprise everyone else actually Sat down and continue working. I left But I had to actually kind of battle with myself because I had to fight the social proof everyone was Doing something else from what I had chosen to do So obviously there's some inertia against you when that happens You start to doubt your decisions if everyone else is making a different decision That's the power of social proof. It turns out that file arm was actually Legit and then all those guys end up getting out But that's just one example of how social proof can affect you in a negative way if you Follow people and they're making the wrong decisions This happens often in business as well when different companies follow their competitors decisions because they themselves Are not sure of what the right decision is to make and you can end up getting in catastrophic Conditions for example during the 2008 recessions when the banks were lending money to a bunch of unreliable customers All the banks were doing the same thing They kept putting themselves in a risky situation because the other banks were a were doing it as well None of the banks actually Thought it out and decided to go against the herd to not fall the sheep and of course that helped cause the disaster of 2008 Now social proof is often triggered when we are puzzled or stressed when there is no clear decision to make That's when we decide to fall the herd if you're in a foreign city, you do what the foreigners do that's the best way to survive because You can ensure that what they're doing must be working if they are still alive That's how social proof works now social proof also works for big industries like McDonald's everyone knows McDonald's is shitty food everyone knows it's not good for you, but yet people eat it all the time and This is not just based off social proof, but social proof definitely helps in its Establishment if you see your friends eat McDonald's you see your grandfather eat McDonald's you see your girlfriend eat McDonald's Everyone around your city is eating McDonald's. How can it be that bad for you? It's much harder to Be persuaded by the vegans if everyone else is eating meat That is social proof. There is social proof for McDonald's so it can't be bad even though Objectively definitely is bad for you You don't see it as bad social proof also help with slavery Back in the day when people against slaves it didn't seem like a bad thing because everyone had slaves There was social proof towards that How can slavery be bad if everyone is doing it? It also helped with the Holocaust if your Nazi bodies are killing the Jews and everyone agrees that it's a good thing How can it be bad? How can all these? Crimes that otherwise would be unexplainable in different circumstances different contexts be acceptable if it was not for social proof If it was not for people making bad decisions When they get together in big numbers and start to adhere to certain philosophies of group think now another funny example I have of social proof is Lately I've been seeing the rapper Kanye West He has a clothing line and some of the garments that he sells are like Tattered they look like tattered You know t-shirts and whatnot, but they're Priced at a few thousand dollars six thousand dollars a piece and I saw on Facebook the other day that Kylie Jenner Was wearing one of these garments that she looked like a hobo. She actually looked like a homeless person But I was surprised to see the reaction of some of the girls on my Facebook feed They were like, oh my god. Look at this. Look look look at this gorgeous Dressed or why not now to me this looks ridiculous because I'm not influenced by Kanye West So I see his clothing line for what it actually looks like looks like homeless people clothes big but because of social proof these girls actually see the clothing as a fashion statement and The value of the attire is raised in their eyes. So that's the power of social proof and this can also branch off to Attraction as well if you're a guy and you go into a Club and let's say you're not that good-looking by normal people's standards if you go into a club with 10 girls by your side The girls in the club will be more likely to pay you attention because you have social proof from other women Social proof is a very big thing in dating a lot of people actually Become successful because of their status in certain environments. They have social proof They become the popular kid while they might be Not so popular in different environments and they won't have that social proof and they won't have the same attraction So social proof runs very deep guys and it's something you have to understand and be aware of Know when it is working in the positive and the negative if you see other people making the wrong decision and Don't don't Jump on the train don't jump on the bandwagon. Don't be the sheep Try make your own decisions try evaluate Everything that's there evaluate their decisions and then see it through your own lens and don't Go against your own judgment because a lot of other people are doing it. Remember a few hundred years ago slavery was okay If you weren't in Nazi Germany killing Jews was okay Or because of social proof Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed that Peace Just do it