10 Quick And Interesting Facts About Body Language

As you may know body language is more complex than it seems at first glance. This is because reading body language has so many nuances and subtleties you have to account for such as context, culture, mood, level of comfort, baseline behavior etc. The list can go on. For example a country and its culture can have a wide range of facial expressions, body movements, and hand gestures that can signal particular emotions and feelings but go from one country to another and those same gestures and expressions can get lost in translation.

Take a look at these 10 quick and interesting facts about body language and see if you learn something new. Because body language is often nuanced and subtle with wide variations of expression you'll always learn something new. There are also experts who professionally study and research in reading body language, and even they can’t always read and interpret body language correctly. It just goes to show how complex human beings can be! We hope you enjoy this list of interesting body language facts.

1. Amazingly woman have a wider range of peripheral vision which allows her to look at a man’s body from head to toe without even getting noticed. A male’s peripheral vision on the other hand is not as good. This is why a man would typically move his gaze up and down a woman’s body which is very obvious and can wind up with the man getting caught.

2. Britain, similar to a lot of Northern Europe and the Far East, is labelled as a “non-contact” culture where there is little physical contact in their daily interactions. The Middle East, Latin America, and Southern Europe are considered “high contact cultures” where physical touch is a part of everyday socializing.

3. Covering the eyes or "eye blocking" such as prolonged blinking, lowering the eyes for a longer than usual period are all powerful signals that portray confusion, disbelief or disagreement.

4. Custom officers often notice that passengers who point their feet toward the exit while talking to the officer to make their custom’s declaration are more likely to be hiding something they should have declared in the first place.

5. Research shows that whatever we’re feeling first shows up in our body before entering our conscious minds microseconds later.



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6. Kissing and romantic touch releases Oxytocin in the brain. It is a hormone that strengthens the emotional bond between the two people.

7. Similar to how a dog will expose its throat to show submission or surrender, humans use their palms to show that they are harmless and not threatening.

8. It has been noted that in stores thieves will try to hide their physical presence by restricting their motions by hindering their head exposure by raising the shoulders and at times lowering the head. Otherwise most people walk around the store with their arms quite free and active and their posture upright.

9. Squinting is a motion that can be very brief, just fraction of a second, but it can often signal negative thoughts or emotions. We tend to squint when we are angry or when we hear sounds, or music or even voices we don’t like.

10. Even when a person is standing still, a person’s body is always telling a story.

For more free and interesting tips on body language, click to get our free Body Language Guide here

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Scarcity: Having less making you want more.

We as people have the innate tendency to value things more that are seen as a limited resource whether it is something is that you cant have or something that you already own but its availability has begun to decrease. Robert Caldini best known for his ideas's of influence in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion states that the idea that something is less available can enhance its desirability through fear that you are losing out on a potential opportunity; and this can cause you to act hastily when you normally wouldn't. Scarcity is used in a variety of situations such as advertising, dating, economics, sales etc. There are some common principles in regards to the use of scarcity which are transferable and commonly used in different contexts on addition to the ones previously mentioned.


There are three ways as to how availability can be threatened...


A deadline.
An effective way to make an opportunity scarce is to give it a deadline, this is because like most people you do not act unless you have to; for example if someone says '' I have a car to give you to you for free, you can pick it up when ever you want'' then it is going to be indefinitely available and then there's no rush to get it immediately because it'll be there tomorrow... and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on. But give it a deadline such as ''I have a car to give to you for free but only until Wednesday when I'll then decide to sell it'' then you will be compelled to act fast in case of missing an opportunity and reaching the point of no return.


Banning and restriction.
The cliche phrase of ''you want what you can't have'' holds true because the rule of scarcity suggests we value things that are unavailable, if someone banned or restricted something from you it gives the object greater value in your eyes and makes you want to have it that little bit more. Books such as The Clockwork Orange, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Fallen Angels have all been banned at one time in or another in America which ironically resulted in the increase of sales, where as if there was no ban or restriction to these books then it would be highly unlikely that people would have taken as much  of an interest in them as they did anyway.


Limited quantity.
A limited quantity of an item can make people act with more urgency much like a deadline discussed earlier, think about what advertising always tells us ''Act now while supplies last!'', ''Limited supplies left!'', ''Only few are available!'', these phrases are designed to make people act quicker to catch the deal before it is gone forever. This principle can also make objects seemingly attractive, for instance diamonds; they are seen as a rare stone and because of this they are very expensive which makes them more scarce to most people as not everybody can afford them. The funny thing is diamonds are not actually rare (though they were in the past), because of higher interests the supplies of diamonds are limited to increase their value thus increasing their desirability.   

Robert Caldini states that scarcity is based off a similar phenomenon called reactance theory, which was first coined by psychologist Jack Brehm. Reactance theory effects one main component in driving human behaviour; our need to keep our freedoms. To elaborate; when our freedom to perform a certain behaviour is threatened or restricted, we have more desire to perform that behaviour. So when our free choice is limited/threatened by the restriction of something that we had access to before, we are motivated to regain control and possess the item more than we previously wanted to so we can maintain that free choice.

Much like when someone says to you ''I want to tell you something'' at that point your interested and offer to listen but your nonchalant about it, then not long after that they suddenly say ''actually don't worry about it, maybe I shouldn't tell you'' .... your interest has suddenly now peaked and your now hassling this person to tell you what they were going to tell you in the first place, you have pretty much changed your attitude simply because of the restriction of information you assumed you was getting anyway. That is how effective reactance theory can be.

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The mere exposure effect: You may have seen it before.

In psychology the phenomenon known as the mere exposure effect first identified by Robert Zanjoc in 1968 is when an unfamiliar object you either dislike or feel indifference towards becomes familiar and something you grow to feel favourably towards because of repeat exposure. So in essence, the more you see, hear or taste something the more you like it. Humans like comfort and familiarity, and when faced with a choice between two opposing options for example such as buying shoe's from a well known brand versus buying shoe's from a new unknown brand, nine times out of ten you will choose the shoe's from the brand you know and are familiar with because of previous exposure. This goes to show that the comfort and familiarity that came with the known brand is key when it came to choosing between these two options, because what people are mainly looking for when making a choice similar to this one in question is whether or not it is a brand they can trust, and for the most part comfort and familiarity builds trust. 

Advertising
Advertising is notorious for using the mere exposure effect, when a company releases a new product their marketing campaign makes the use of bill boards, posters, television adverts, newspaper adverts, magazine adverts.... you name it. This gives this new product a sense of omnipresence when you add it all up but the real intention behind this is to get it noticed at least once a day so when you do finally come across this new product in the shop you feel a sense of familiarity towards it, this is because of the repeated exposure and now are that much more likely to purchase it. The use of trailers for movies are also a form of the mere exposure effect, by giving you a small sample of the movie you become aware of it, then with enough repeat exposures you become familiar with it and may decide to go out and watch it because you've begun to favour it more and more over time. Lastly music is unmistakeably something that commonly uses the mere exposure effect as a tool, at some point you may have decided you didn't like a piece of music or a tune based on your initial impression of it but after hearing it a few times on the radio and seeing a promotional advert of it on television a couple of times then even hear your friends talk about it which evokes social proof, you slowly come round to deciding that you want to know what the fuss is about and may even go out your way to listen to it and even purchase a copy. Quite effective.

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An experiment conducted by social psychology pioneer Robert Zajonc in 1968 involving him showing a group of American participants images of a selection of Chinese characters varying different exposures up to 25 times then questioning the participants about what they saw asking how favourably they felt to each character that was shown. Keeping in mind that each character had no initial meaning to each of the American participants, the results were that the characters that were rated favourably and had more positive connotations were shown more frequently than the others which were shown less frequently. Zajonc concluded that the extra favourability some of the Chinese characters received was because of the familiarity gained by each repeated exposure.

Human relationships

The mere exposure effect is prevalent in human relationships, similar to how advertising works; the more time spent with someone or even just seeing an individual the more likely you are to form a positive opinion about them. This is provided that they haven't done anything overly negative. There are many situations where being in close proximity to someone increases the likelihood of being favourable to a person or a group of people through repeated exposure where you otherwise would not have in a one off situation. These situations would include college dorms, holidays where you would be staying for a period of time, your local supermarket, the gym, your workplace, your local bar... the list is endless. This principle goes for attraction in human relationships also, the feeling of liking increases the chances of someone being a potential partner (think people who date people at their workplace) because of their positive opinion of them as a result of repeated exposure and due to this we find we can be comfortable around them, and as people we are attracted to things we feel we are comfortable with. 

An unusual experiment regarding the mere exposure effect was carried out by Professor Charles Geotzinger in 1968 in his classroom at Oregon State University where he had a mystery student attend one of the professors classes for two months in a black bin bag with only his bare feet showing, this occurred every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00 am with the student sitting at the back of the classroom. None of the 20 students that attended his class knew the identity of this mystery student. To begin with the students showed hostility towards the person in the black bag, and then over time this changed to curiosity, then some time after that the students eventually showed a positive attitude and developed a friendship with this mystery student.

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How psychology and influence is used to open doors.

In psychology and influence its always good to understand that when you are attempting to persuade some to make an action or decision it is usually better to start small. This is because putting all your cards on the table and directly asking for a large concession upfront is usually met with resistance, and while this bold move can sometimes work depending on who your dealing with most of the time it doesn't and can place you in a more difficult position which makes your job a lot harder than it needs to be. There are two types of sequential requests which are very useful in most but if not all situations and contexts depending on which one you are using, and they are researched by Professor Robert Caldini and mentioned in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The two sequential requests of this topic are the foot in the door technique and the door in the face technique.

Foot in the door technique
A very simple technique and easy to use because to put it simply people have need to be consistent and feel internally obliged to do so. To start with you ask a person to perform a small request which they are likely to say yes to then the next request will be bigger and related to the last request which they again will likely say yes to and you carry this pattern until you have guided them to a predetermined goal. Sometimes you may have to ask for two requests to get to the goal in mind, sometimes you may have to ask for more depending on the person and how big the predetermined goal is. You will have to judge accordingly. For example, your goal maybe to get someone to help you with your work, you first ask them to check if you've spelt a word in your piece of work correctly (a small request), then you ask them to check if there are any other spelling mistakes (a bigger request), then you ask them if they are good with work/research (which they should say yes to), then lastly you ask them to help with your work which by the time you get to asking this their need to be consistent has already kicked in and they will likely say yes.


In the mid 1960's psychologists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Frasier conducted an experiment where a researcher posed as a volunteer worker going door to door in a Californian neighbourhood asking the resident home owners if they could have a public billboard sign installed in their front lawn reading DRIVE CAREFULLY. Understandably a majority of these people said no (83 percent) because it was such a large request upfront. Another set of residents were asked the same request but two weeks prior to this they were asked if they could display a small 3 inch sign saying BE A SAFE DRIVER. The results were that because they committed to displaying the smaller sign the likelihood of them displaying the billboard dramatically increased. A full 76 percent of the people agreed to displaying the large bill board after displaying the much smaller sign.

Door in the face technique
Very similar to the foot in the door technique though not as effect but very useful nonetheless. Again you make a request but this time you make it a large request and when the person says no you make a smaller request which the person being asked is most likely going to say yes because the second request will seem more reasonable in comparison to the first request and sometimes (depending on the person) the feeling of guilt has a part to play also. Have a predetermined goal helps so you don't get a smaller concession than planned for example if you need 50 pence (or cents if your American) you may ask an acquaintance ''do you have 80 pence?'' they say no, then you ask ''okay do you have 50 pence instead?'' the person says yes and viola you have your 50 pence. Very simple.

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Robert Caldini and his researchers in 1975 carried out an experiment involving two groups of students where the first group were asked a difficult request to volunteer to council some juvenile delinquents for two hours a week for two years, naturally the students said no to this so the researchers followed up with an easier request of asking them to chaperone them to the zoo for one day only while the second group were only asked to take the juvenile delinquents to the zoo. The results were 50 percent of the students in the first group agreed with the small request after the large request was made compared to the 17 percent in the second group who were asked the small request only which suggests that the students were more likely to comply with the small request if a larger one was asked to begin with.

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False memories: Do you remember when......?

Often the human memory is seen as something that is similar to a video tape where once something is recorded it cannot be altered, changed or tampered with. Even when someone is 100 percent sure that a situation or an event took place in a particular way they can still be wrong despite their certainty, in reality the human memory is susceptible to change and manipulation regardless of how solid and reliable you think it is. The human memory can be generally be shaped and changed by a variety of factors causing inaccuracies and alterations when recalling events, of course how malleable someone's memory is depends on the individual person.


Ways memory can be altered.

The misinformation effect
As we know the memory is prone to errors and alterations. This susceptibility is enhanced by the misinformation effect which is where misleading information is incorporated ones memory prior to an event taking place. This can be caused by the use of leading questions ('how bright was the red Ferrari?'' as opposed to ''what colour was the Ferrari?'') where when used the person being asked will change their perception of an event to fit the question. 

American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Lotus, one of the most notable researchers on false memory psychology and misinformation conducted a psychological experiment in 1974 where she had a group of participants watch a video of a car accident and then were questioned after about what they had just seen. When asked ''How fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other? the answers in regards to the rate of speed were generally higher than ''How fast were the cars were going when they bumped into each other?''. The specific wording used in the questions asked affected how the participants perceived the crash thus changing how they recalled events when asked. Also the length of time affects their perception of the situation as when the participants who were asked a week later were asked if there was glass in the scene of the accident, those who heard the word smash in the interview were more likely to say they saw glass in the video even if there was none.  

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Junior Prom Effect
Emotions are known to have an effect on memory by intensifying them and giving them significance, they seem to act as a kind of bookmark so that upon recollection it evokes a strong response attached to it making it difficult to forget. Specifically negative emotions can create very intense and distinctive memories, not only this but they can highly distort your memories relative to neutral memories, according to Professor Charles Brainerd who studied the psychology of negative emotions and their effect on memory '' You may not remember what happened to you, but boy, do you remember it was negative. And that allows you to fill in the blanks with 'memories' that didn't really happen''.

Brainerd and his wife Valerie Reyna conducted research where 120 participants (60 in Brazil, 60 in the United States) were asked to read a list of words that had either positive, neutral and negative connotations and after to recall the words which were listed. When recalling the negative words from the list they previously read  they were more likely to falsely remember words which were not on the list while when it came to remembering the positive words on the list their memory was more accurate. Brainerd prior to the experiment stated. ''Historically the belief has been that negative events are easy to remember, that negative emotion creates very distinct memories. What we found was the opposite, negative information really distorts your memory.

Brainerd called this phenomenon the Junior Prom Effect because many people found this high school experience negative but intense.

Lost in the Mall Technique
Another way memories can be fabricated is through suggestion and storytelling where someone tells you a story or a situation which has supposedly happened in a way you can relate to and incorporate into your memory.

American Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her psychology student Jacqueline Pickrell conducted an experiment involving 24 participants who were told 4 different stories of when they were 5-6 years old, one of the four stories told was made up. Prior to the experiment the researchers spoke to each of the participants relatives to get three events which really happened when they were 5-6 years old. Then each family member was asked to provide a fourth story that was made up but was plausible, and it had to involve getting lost in the mall and being rescued by an elderly adult, this was to be used as the false memory. In the study nearly 25 percent of the participants recalled the false events and also providing details even though they never happened. In other studies related to this one performed by other researchers the lost in the mall technique has been used to create false memories such as, being hospitalized over night, taking a hot air balloon and being victim of an aggressive animal attack.

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Negotiation Tactics.

Pretty much all of us have come across a situation where we have to negotiate whether it is trying to convince your boss for a pay rise, closing a deal for a new home or even selling a new product or service to a potential client, in reality more often than not you will find yourself in a position where you have to put forth your best foot to explain your reasons for your proposal or argument or convince somebody else to help you do something for you in exchange for something that benefits them also, sometimes its the other way round where someone is trying to convince you to help them. In regards to negotiating it is useful to learn some techniques not only to help you with your business and personal life but to help you recognize them being used on you also. 

Know who you are dealing with 

One of the most important aspects of negotiating and building your negotiation skills is the ability to recognize and understand the person you are dealing with, this will help you shape your proposal for maximum effect. What you are looking for is a good level of rapport so you can have an idea of their psychology, their background, likes, dislikes and more importantly find out what they'd most likely respond to. You may not get this completely correct every time but it gives you a better foot to stand on. Keeping your ears open for clues in the conversation and keeping your eyes open for visual cues or body language clues which will help you achieve a good personality profile to work with.

Conditioning

This always begins before you start your negotiations which you are essentially stating your conditions; this can take place over the phone, via email, letter etc for example...

You phone the car salesman who you want to purchase a new car from. He's says ''I will be happy to talk to you but I don't want to waste your time as I will only accept the full price of car and will be looking for a close in the next two days as there is another customer who is interested''

The car sales man has just preconditioned you to some terms without you really being able to chime in and make any requests your own. A way to counter this negotiation tactic is to state why you are you are calling in the first place and separate the conditions previously made to even out the playing field. You would say something like ''the reason of us sitting down and talking is to see if we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement in regards to price of the car, why don't we set those terms aside and see if we can agree on everything else.''

The use of higher authority

An effective way to reduce pressure in a negotiation is to introduce an authority who you will essentially need to gain approval from, this will basically take a small bulk of responsibility away from you and also will be useful in delaying the negotiations if you want  time to think things through. For instance if you want reduce the price of a product or service you are interested in and find yourself in a difficult position in the negotiating process you can say something like..

''Though what you are saying sounds tempting I will have to get back to you as I have to run it by my partner'' or ''I can see your prices are reasonable but I have spoken to my boss and he/she will not go higher than the price I stated earlier''.

When other people use this tactic sometimes the authority isn't real and use it to just give them an edge in the discussion. Lastly don't over use this tactic because if you do it will seem like you have no power in regards to the decision making and your negotiator will ask to see your supposed authority.

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Good cop bad cop

A very common if not cliché technique which is designed to soften up the person being negotiated, interviewed or interrogated. Often used in movies and crime drama's the good cop bad cop technique is where one person is being questioned by two other people and one of them is particularly aggressive and abusive giving the person being questioned hassle while the other person is the polar opposite being more reasonable and understanding. The fact that the bad guy is so aggressive makes the person taking the grilling more pliable to the good guy seeing as he is looking for some sort of relief from the negative situation the bad guy has created, thus making him/her that much more suggestible for a negotiation in the good guys favour. Using good cop bad cop doesn't always have to be used by two people, one person can use this also by displaying two sides of his/her personality essentially being polarising and confusing. This tactic can be quite manipulative. 

High balling

Sometimes risky, high balling is where if you were selling a car you would set a price higher than the price you really want, if somebody was interested in the car naturally they would try and negotiate a price where it is cheaper for them but because you've set the price so high in the first place you may end up with a price exactly what you wanted to end up with in the first place or even better you may sell the car for more than you wanted in the first place. Though sometimes if you high ball too far the customer may decide to walk away as the price is too high and deemed questionable which is why you have too be careful as you may get rejected quickly. Their are many applications for high balling such as selling items and products, asking for a pay rise, selling a house and a lot more. When you ask for more, who knows? You might get it.

Nibbling

As negotiating can sometimes be tiresome and exhausting the longer the process take the need to reach an agreement becomes more and more desired. After a long negotiation process and when both parties agree on closing the deal one of the two people involved might ask for one more thing to include in the deal, this is called nibbling. Just before pen hits paper a request is made making it hard to say no as usually the request is small and the person being asked is psychologically drained after such a drawn out process. A nibble will usually be asked with something like ''by the way can you include a spare mouse with that computer system?'' A small request which is perceived as harmless. Remember nibbles are saved until the end when the other party is psychologically vulnerable.

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Rapport and being a copy cat.

Imitation is one of the most common and recognizable behaviours in human interactions, just as a young ape copy's its behaviours such as climbing and swinging across trees just like other apes, people copy other people's actions whether it is posture, mannerisms, words or accents. This behavioural mimicry is called rapport. When people are in rapport they understand each other whether its each others, ideas, feelings or personal views, rapport takes place when the people involved in the same interaction are in sync; in fact this is the foundation of all positive communication because rapport is a by-product of trust and a sense of being on the same wavelength, this is all subconscious of course.

Psychologists have found that the mimicry that goes with rapport tends to increase when the people involved are performing a common goal or task, this maybe because when performing a task the people that are included are forced to embody a similar mindset required for the task, for example in a game of football; a football player having the mindset of a basketball player would be out of sync with the other football players making it more difficult to communicate, cooperate and perform as opposed to the football player having a mindset of another football player so now he/she will be in sync with the other players and they now will be able to interact and play smoothly. Mimicry is usually one of being persuasive, charismatic and having the ability to smoothly converse with someone effectively, for instance really good sales people understand that to be able to sell their product they have to essentially sell themselves and by doing this the customer has to feel that they are being understood and that the salesman can see their point of view.

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A study at Duke University North Carolina led by assistant Professor Robin Tanner researched the psychology of how mimicry affect potential buyers and clients. The experiments involved 37 Duke students to try a new sports drink and answer a few questions in an interview regarding this sports drink, during each interview the interviewer mirrored roughly half the participants. The interviewer mirrored the participants posture, body language and body movements with a two second delay so if the participant folds their arms after two seconds the interviewer would fold their arms, if the participant scratches their face, taps the table, rub their nose the interviewer does the same after two second gap and if the participant crosses their legs the interviewer does the same with opposing legs and so on. The idea was not to follow too closely otherwise the person being mirrored will find out and not respond naturally in the remainder of the interview. Luckily for the researcher none of the mimicked students picked up on any of the mimicry though interestingly enough by the end of the interview they were more likely to consume this new sports drink and more importantly they said they would buy it and assumed it would be successful in the market. That goes to show that the flattery of being a copy cat can go a long way.

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Social proof: Everybody's getting involved!

It is well known that we are social beings and look towards other people close or otherwise for support, companionship and even inspiration. In other words we have a need to be connected to others. This surpasses the act of just communication, we also look to others to guide our decision making, this phenomenon is called social proof.

Social proof arguably is another word for conformity, coined by the psychologist Robert Caldini who wrote one of the most well received books called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, I strongly recommend you read it. Social proof, this is when people look towards others for guidance on how to correctly behave within an unfamiliar situation. These decisions we make can be made consciously or unconsciously, even though we like to think we are free and original with our thinking ironically most of the time we are not.

The general concept in regards to the psychology of social proof is generally ''if everyone else is doing it, it must be right.'' For instance you're at the train station waiting for a train to go to work, there are other people waiting on this platform as well and you've been waiting a while, a few trains have passed by though none of them have actually stopped. After a while you hear an announcement from the speaker tannoy explaining that ''the next train stopping is not in service''. True enough this train arrives at the station slowing down to a stop, you see everybody edging towards the train anyway, and funnily enough so do you too, soon after realising that this train is not in service and you cannot board, the train leaves without letting anyone on board. You remind yourself about the earlier announcement feeling a little foolish. This is an example of social proof at work. Though most of you might have experienced this whether it was with a train or a bus and maybe some of you haven't, hopefully you get the idea.

Social proof can be present in variety of ways, this can be from conforming to people talking in a certain way so you change your speech to fit in, to a new trend of the latest trainers to a new popular song on the radio even deciding to watch a movie after reading its popular review. People like to move with the herd. Advertising and media are notorious for using social proof to their advantage such as..

-Television shows playing canned laughter and pre-recorded applauses to create the  perception of a joke being funnier than it actually is and cues for a round of applause.

-Testimonials to increase increase a products favourability, even from a well known celebrity.

-Communication company slogans such as ''Millions of people stay connected through our    network'' 

-Social media eg. tweets, Facebook likes, Youtube views etc etc

-Advertising announcing shortage of their product due to ''high demand''

-Positive reviews from companies best customers to give company a good image.

When leveraging and using social proof keep in mind there are a few principles which help to increase its effect depending on what you are trying to achieve. 

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Uncertainty
This effect is quite significant when the situation is ambiguous, similar to the example a given earlier. In Caldini's book on influence describes one of the most disturbing and even upsetting events that occurred in history in relation to social proof and conformity happened in 1978, the incident was instigated by Reverend Jim Jones at Jones Town. Over 900 members of his cult were convinced to drink a strawberry flavoured poison which unsurprisingly took each of their lives. It was explained that being in isolation from the rest of the world in a jungle within a dangerous country was one of the major factors towards this mass suicide. The Jones followers moved from San Francisco to the jungles of Guyana, being in totally unfamiliar territory with other similar people to themselves naturally they had major uncertainty in regards to their new situation which increased they likely hood of social proof coming into play, in the case of the mass suicide the people of Jones Town looked towards similar others for correct behaviour and when they saw them taking the strawberry flavoured poison those very same people followed suit which ensued a mass suicide of their own doing. In summary the isolation of like individuals in an unfamiliar environment and uncertainty will turn the group into followers.

Similarity
People are more inclined to follow others who they view as similar to themselves, it is most powerful when the action or behaviour has been observed. This principle is commonly used in adverts where whoever is using the product is the person who looks ordinary and is the everyday man/women, this is useful because this will reach out to a wide umbrella of people who see themselves similarly ordinary and everyday thus making it seem a more realistic prospect to go and purchase this product. On a related note testimonials also have a powerful effect because if the person giving a positive testimonial is relate-able to you then you will find yourself thinking to the effect of ''if it works for this person, then it must work for me too.'' Powerful stuff.

Social permission
Peoples behaviours tend to gravitate towards a positive outcome and away from negative consequences this has been known to be called the law of effect, this concept was first realised by Edward Thorndike. I spoke of this in a previous post on How we learn:the principles and the mechanics chapter 2. In regards to social proof that means if we see others doing something that may be looked down on, we are more likely to commit that action as well, we just need permission to perform that  behaviour. This can give some explanation to the Rwanda genocide in 1994 where there were mass murders between the Tutsi tribe and the Hutu tribe. The Hutu civilian people were instructed by their military personnel to kill even their own Tutsi neighbours amongst other extreme acts, the participants sometimes were given money and food and were also told they could keep the land of the Tutsi neighbours they killed. The idea behind this extreme example is if given the okay by the majority or by people with credibility they are likely to commit acts they wouldn't otherwise normally do. People more often than not can be easily led and will do things if there is an incentive or little or no negative consequences. 

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