Studies have shown that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool – even in an online age, when a fellow human being tells us about something great, we listen with open ears. Although our lives are vastly different than our neanderthal ancestors, we aren’t as far removed as we think. We are still programmed to make choices based on the actions of others. There is safety in numbers with the herd mentality, so when we see a lot of people recommending an item and saying they HAVE to have it, we tend to feel likewise.
As someone who frequents Slickdeals, a website that aggregates the daily online deals, I’ve witnessed myself and many others fall victim to the herd mentality. Many silly purchasing decisions have been made all because of a forum swarming with users saying, “in for 3, what a great deal!” or “unbelievable price on these, they’ll sell out quickly.” This results in unnecessary, even down-right useless purchases – an outcome that many on the site dub the SD affect. The truth is that we’re programmed to act quite sheepish.