Social influence is a psychological process in which a person is influenced by the behavior, opinions, beliefs, or attitudes of others.
It is impossible not to be influenced, at least to some extent, by others around. We are constantly affected by others on the slopes even if we may not recognize it. This is how the rules of conduct, our belief system, and attitudes that are part of social life are acquired, impacting on us more than we realize. Skiing, as a social activity, has a certain effect on the beliefs of those who practice it. We, as social individuals, are also influenced by other recreational skiers, athletes, instructors, or by coaches.
According to marketing professor Jonah Berger, the actions of others affect our own decisions. Our own behaviors on the slopes are usually imitations of the decisions other skiers make. The social skiing environment, i.e. other people on the slope, influences our own behavior and can motivate or distract us, thus modifying our performance.
One of the possible reasons for consciously or unconsciously imitating the behavior of other skiers could be to save time in discovering or considering everything for ourselves. Taking advantage of the influence of other occurs, for example, when imitating a skier who has the same goal as we do and who is also good at achieving it.
We not only tend to imitate the behavior of other skiers; we also take into account the opinions of others. If we hear about the success of others, we will surely experience an increase in our self-confidence that will make us feel successful because it will induce us to think that we can also achieve it.
Feeling observed also influences our own behavior. The presence of other skiers observing makes us generate different behaviors. In most of us, the tendency will be to be smart and perform well, while in others the propensity will be to avoid it or perhaps take the challenge with humor.
When observing other people around an injured person, a social influence phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility or the bystander effect often occurs. Those who have to make a decision to give aid expect others to do so first. This happens because they feel less pressure to act since they think that others will do something about it, for example, by calling the ski patrol. This way of proceeding makes them feel less guilty for not helping, ignoring their own conscience.
We can conclude that:
- Other people’s behaviors on the slopes affect our own.
- Our behavior is influenced by the observation of other skiers.
- The social skiing environment modifies our own performance by motivating or distracting.
The Principle of Social proof
Social proof, or the carryover effect, refers to the tendency to imitate the behavior of others believing that we are deciding correctly by applying the social conviction that the right thing to do is what the majority does.
One way to determine what is right is to look for what others think is right. We would determine what is considered ‘right’ when we find out what others think would be appropriate skiing. We then decide what is a congruent behavior in a certain environmental context when we observe others adopting it. This is especially true in the way we make decisions to assume a certain behavior. We often perceive how to deal with situations depending on how others do it. This effect tends to increase under the influence of the behaviors of the most intimate family and social environment since they prevail over the opinions of strangers.
An example of this psychological mechanism is reflected in the fact that a coach’s recommendations, as an expert, are trusted so the athletes give him the reason when they doubt about their own knowledge of the technique or the tactics of a certain slalom run or about particular conditions of the terrain.
The instructor, being also a professional with a high image, is perceived as influential at the moment of, for example, suggesting the purchase of ski equipment since the skiers tend to identify and reflect themselves with what the instructor uses.
Another example of social proof is checking the opinions of other people before booking a mountain accommodation. We are prone to believe real users more than online advertisements or celebrity influencers who recommend them.
Certification is another sign of social proof. An instructor will engender more confidence in his or her learners if he or she is certified, just as a ski school or ski club will have greater credibility if it is officially recognized by a national association or federation.
The wisdom of the crowds is that the more people trust something, the better it is. The more people who are on someone’s side the faster they will build trust in others. Most skiers are ‘imitators’, only a minority are ‘initiators’, i.e. they generate trend. This great majority is persuaded by the actions of others more than by any other reason so that, in order to modify any groups’ behavior, it is necessary to convince the trend-forming minority to make the intended behavioral change.
Faced with the uncertainty of how to act, we tend to place a lot of trust in the collective and assume that, if many people are doing the same thing, they must know something that we do not know. The problem could arise if the others, instead of acting based on true knowledge, are themselves also reacting according to the pull effect.
In short, it is us who, by using social proof, convince ourselves that what we prefer is appropriate because others manifest it through their behaviors.
We arrive then to the following conclusions:
- The principle of social proof or carryover effect is based on imitating the actions of others given that they would reflect the ‘correct’ behavior to follow given a certain context.
- This behavioral mechanism comes from our evolutionary past where moving in a group was a good survival strategy. It is still used today because it is rooted in our genes, even if it does not represent a survival advantage.
- The risk is to adopt an automated attitude that entails the possibility of being deceived by the bias or falsity of the arguments that others use to justify their own behaviors.
