The bandwagon effect.

Everyone believes it, so it must be true.

Cognitive biases are fundamental errors in thinking that negatively impact decision making quality and outcome.

Humans are susceptible to these errors in reasoning and thinking, our own emotional, psychological, and intellectual blindspots create the openings.

There is no such thing as a perfect logician (an expert in the study of logic), but we can all strive to cover our blindspots and craft better arguments.

There are numerous fundamental human biases out there, but the one I specially prepared for this newsletter is the BANDWAGON EFFECT.

“Everyone believes it, so it must be true”.

According to Kendra Cherry” The bandwagon effect refers to the tendency people have to adopt a certain behavior, style, or attitude simply because everyone else is doing it. The more people that adopt a particular trend, the more likely it becomes that other people will also hop on the bandwagon.

Assuming that something is the truth based on the fact that majority of people believes it is true without prompt regard for the qualifications of people in question to validate the claim.

For example: During an election, if you find yourself voting for a candidate because everyone else is voting for that same person without critically analyzing the credentials and credibility of that particular candidate, that is a bandwagon effects at work.

The over-reliance on the majority — with no regard for whether these people are qualified to make this decision — may lead to poor judgement. This is where first principles thinking goes to die.

Why does the bandwagon effect occurs and how can you use it to your advantage?

Well that’s exactly our topic for next week newsletter, best believe I also wants to find out answers to why bandwagon effect occurs, but………………the next 7 days are almost here.😎

Are you also guilty of the bandwagon effects? share me your stories at the comments section or by replying this mail, I’m looking forward to reading from you.

Wishing you a terrific week ahead as you continue to reason with Ahmad.