The Law of Proof states that people believe if something worked before, it will probably work again . While emotion is what will ultimately get someone to take action, it is perceived logic that will open up the possibility of them taking action in the first place. One of the biggest ways that we exercise logic - or at least what we believe to be logic - is by taking a look at what other people have done and the results they’ve experienced.
This method of looking for proof does two things: First, it shows us that a certain method of doing things is effective and second, it makes us feel the method is widely accepted so it must correct.
Each and every one of us wants to fit in, wants to belong and wants to be part of a certain social group. It is human nature to feel this way and that’s why often times, we want to see what the majority of people have done in certain situations. In most cases, we will assume that if enough people did something, it must be the logical or correct way of doing things. We make these judgments based on social norms and there are basically two types that exist:
Explicit Norms - These are ultimately written, documented and/or spoken rules that are either accepted publicly or within a certain group of people. Examples include an employee handbook at a place of employment, the policies and procedures of an organization or street signs.
Implicit Norms – These rules of the game are usually not as openly stated as explicit ones. Implicit norms include traditions or something being accepted as “the right thing to do” such as saying hello to someone when you meet them for the first time or not putting your elbows on the table when you eat. These are norms that have been put in place over the years by society that most people have a basic understanding that they should follow. In cases where we don't know what the norm is, we will seek to find and this is where social validation gives us is the short-cut that we are looking for. Rather than investing the time, energy and hard work of researching a certain topic and figuring out whether or not we should act on it, we simply just look at what other people do.
People in advertising and marketing know the power of social validation works extremely well which is why they put things like “over 1 million copies sold” on the cover of books which sends a message to us that says since over 1 million people have bought this book, it must be worth buying and therefore we should probably buy it.
There are many different ways to put social validation to work. When trying to be persuasive, if what you have to offer has been socially validated by the majority of people, most people will be interested in it. When it comes to social validation, there are a few rules that I always like to follow.
Rule # 1 - The bigger the group, the more likely your chances of being able to persuade someone using social validation becomes. The higher the number of people thinking, acting and behaving in a certain way, the greater the likelihood of more people following.
Rule # 2 - The second important factor is the level of identity involved. The more people can identify with what the majority group is doing, the more likely they are to get involved in it. If we hear that a large number of people have bought a certain book on particular topic, it will open us up more to the possibility of doing it because we see that so many other people have done it but it must be a topic that we can identify and relate to, otherwise we probably would not have any interest in it at all.
Rule #3 - The third and most important rule of social validation is that the principle has to be extremely clear. So the factor that is that's making it so large among the public is the factor that you want to exploit. This could include the fact that it’s the s the best-selling, the most effective, the cheapest or the longest lasting.