Social proof: a path to protecting wildlife.

The fight to protect nature must continue, even when there are wars, chaos, social decay, and other crises all around us. Every storm eventually passes, followed by calm, and then it is time to pick up speed again and set the sails in the right direction. Today, at the very least, we can create social proof, build a large audience, and develop a foundation of solutions to environmental problems for overcoming the planetary crisis.

Today I prepared a separate piece for the general audience about social proof—what it is and how it works. For you, my allies here at our headquarters, I want to share some of the scientific studies I have been examining recently.

An experiment involving 61 million people showed that a social mobilization message had a causal effect not only on the online expression of political behavior, but also on real-world voting. This is important for us because the effect spread to friends and friends of friends, and the socially transmitted effect on voting was greater than the direct effect of the message itself. Nearly all of the observed transmission occurred through close social ties: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11421

The next study shows that repeated social reinforcement strengthens the spread of behavior. In a controlled experiment, a social structure that exposed people to repeated reinforcement of new behavior from multiple contacts significantly facilitated its spread: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1185231

Another important study found that a committed minority reaching approximately 25% of a group could shift the majority toward a new social norm. We can use this in our work to think about the specific threshold number of people at which we might be able to bring about change on a much larger scale: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aas8827

Another study involved 14,341 participants who evaluated unfamiliar songs. When people were shown the choices made by previous participants, stronger social influence causally increased both inequality in popularity and the unpredictability of what would become popular. Quality mattered, but it did not fully determine the outcome: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1121066

I would also highlight another scientific study showing that the media can causally increase public discussion of an issue. It was a real randomized field experiment involving 48 media outlets. Researchers randomly determined when groups of media organizations would publish stories about a specific issue. These publications causally increased public expression and participation in national discussion of the issue. The authors estimated an increase in discussion of the broader policy area equivalent to approximately 62.7% of the normal daily volume, or about 13,166 additional posts during an experimental week: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aao1100

Alongside it is a study examining how the media can help spread public discussion from one place to another: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000312240607100503

In total, I have studied 17 major scientific papers. It is important for me to understand how these mechanisms are used in social engineering and how we can use them to protect wildlife. I believe people need to understand these things: who is influencing them, how they are doing it, and why. Understanding this can help us protect our independence.

Let us continue the fight! We are doing everything right.