Скачать или смотреть Pantelis Analytis - The marginal majority effect: when social influence produces lock-in

Abstract
People are influenced by the choices of others, a phenomenon observed across contexts in the social and behavioral sciences. Social influence can lock in an initial popularity advantage of an option over a higher quality alternative. Yet several experiments designed to enable social influence have found that social systems self-correct rather than lock-in. Here we identify a behavioral phenomenon that makes inferior lock-in possible, which we call the 'marginal majority effect': A discontinuous increase in the choice probability of an option as its popularity exceeds that of a competing option. We demonstrate the existence of marginal majority effects in several recent experiments and show that lock-in always occurs when the effect is large enough to offset the quality effect on choice, but rarely otherwise. Our results reconcile conflicting past empirical evidence and connect a behavioral phenomenon to the possibility of social lock-in.

About the speaker
Pantelis Analytis, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing and Management and the Danish Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Southern Denmark

IMC Tuesday Seminar held October 29th, 2024.

Note: Talk is trimmed to ensure anonymity of informants.