persuasion Members, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation, thought he was asleep and left him there to sleep it off. Unfortunately, it turned out he was found dead the next day, in the same spot where they had left him the night before. CNN reported on the vicious way in which some Marines are initiated into the military. In the initiation ritual called "blood pinning" the recruits' badges are literally pinned into their chests. Psychologists have identified people belonging to these organizations with what is now called "gang syndrome." Gang syndrome manifests itself when participants feel shame for the crimes they committed (acts they've committed or pain they've endured) but went through with them anyway so they could finally have a sense of belonging, or a sense of family-typically a feeling they never experienced in their own home lives.6 I once attended a college football game between two fierce crosstown rivals. Emotions were high, and we all wanted our home team to win. One of the fans near me was using a megaphone to taunt the other team and its fans. He only meant it in good fun, but it was not too long before a renta cop came up to the man and told him he could not use the megaphone during the game. The rentacop stood in the middle of the aisle of the sold out game. The fan said he was just having fun but the rentacop stressed that it was strictly against the rules. Then the social pressure and validation kicked in. Other fans nearby told the rentacop that the fan's overzealous actions were okay and that there was no problem. The rentacop tried to persist, but the crowd only grew louder in their protests. Finally, the renta cop decided it wasn't worth the hassle and left. Even watching someone else "do what's right" will give your cause social validation. For example, one study asked 10,000 high school students to give blood. The study found that students who had been exposed to thirtyeight photos of high school blooddrive scenes were 17 percent more likely to donate blood than the students who had not seen the photos. Seeing others do the right thing prompts us to socially validate the cause and to jump on board.7 Social Validation: The Power of the Group In another study, researchers had very young children who were terrified of dogs watch a little boy play with his dog for twenty minutes a day. After only four days, 67 percent of the children were willing to sit in a playpen with a dog and even remain with it when everyone else left the room. The results were lasting, too: One month later, the same children were just as eager to play with dogs.8 In a similar study, children who were afraid of dogs were influenced just as readily by films of a child playing with a dog as they were when watching a live child play with a dog.9 In another study, participants were asked to identify the longer of two lines displayed on a screen. One line was clearly longer than the other, but some participants had been privately instructed prior to the study to state that the shorter line was longer. persuasion