THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 25

What can a towel teach us about human thinking?

Subject:  Social Proof - Cialdini’s Towel

Event:  Towel Day

What is it that gets wetter as it dries?

-A towel

Today fans of Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, honor his life and work by wearing or displaying towels. Why towels? Well, the explanation can be found in an excerpt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. (1)

Adams was born in Cambridge, England in 1952. His publishing career began with a short story that was published in a comic book called Eagle when he was 11 years old. His best known work, the comic sci-fi novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy began as a BBC Radio 4 series in 1978. The novel was published in 1979. The original novel spawned four sequels and a cult following that bought more than 15 million books. The Hitchhiker's Guide was made into a movie in 2005.

                                                                Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay 

Towel Day was established in 2001 after Adam’s unexpected death of a heart attack on May 11, 2001. He was 49 at the time, living in California with his wife and daughter.

Another towel related subject comes to us from the work of psychologist John Cialdini, who has published studies that establish the power of social influence.  In one study, the goal was to influence hotel guests to recycle their towels - reducing both the environmental impact and financial impact of washing towels.  Two different signs were placed in hotel rooms.  One asked guests to respect the environment by reusing their towels during their stay.  The second sign informed patrons that the majority of hotel guests recycled their towels at least once during their stay.  

The results of the study revealed that the second message, which informed guests that the majority of other guests had reused their towels, was 26 percent more likely to influence the recycling of towels than the first message, which featured the “save the environment” pitch (2).

The lesson of the towel study comes down to one of the most effective of all tools of influence:  social proof.  Despite the fact that people are not consciously aware of it, they tend to look to other people to guide their decisions and actions.  Humans have a hardwired herd instinct. From an evolutionary perspective, social proof makes perfect sense; after all, our survival as a species hinged on staying with and working as a group. But today, going along with the crowd does not always provide an advantage; in fact, this herd instinct can be used to subconsciously influence our behavior.  In the case of the message about reusing towels, the message nudges us towards productive behavior; however, we should also be aware of how it might be used to manipulate us.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did the towel study illustrate the influence of social proof?

Challenge:  Have You Heard About the Herd?  Social proof is one key tool of influence that marketers use to get you to spend money on their products.  Do some research on some specific examples of how specific companies appeal to social proof to sell their products.

Sources:

1-Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Harmony Books, 1980.

2-Goldstein, Noah J., Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini.  Yes:  50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. New York:  Free Press, 2008: 12.