social proof

(noun)

People tend to do things that they see others are doing.

Related Terms

  • reciprocity

Examples of social proof in the following topics:

  • The Psychology of Persuasion

    • Social Proof: People will do things they see other people are doing.
  • Establishing Credibility

    • The burden of proof is on you, so you need to make a case for the value of your experience, training, or research.
  • History of Public Speaking

    • Aristotle divided the "means of persuasion" into three parts, or three artistic proofs, necessary to persuade others: logical reason (logos), human character (ethos), and emotional appeal (pathos).
    • Communication departments had professors who studied and taught classical rhetoric, contemporary rhetoric, along with empirical and qualitative social science.
  • Personification

    • We deny it; and what is your proof?
    • If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make the proof.
  • Build Credibility

    • Aristotle established three methods of proof to build credibility: initial, derived, and terminal.
    • Aristotle, the classical Greek philosopher and rhetorician, established three methods of proof—logos, ethos, and pathos.
  • Using Supporting Materials Effectively

    • Regardless of the type of supporting material used, they are effective only if they fulfill the speaker's burden of proof.
  • Deploying a Rational Appeal

    • Basically, the burden of proof is on you the speaker as you develop your appeals to the audience.
  • Body

    • Let's say you have to write a speech on the rise of social media.
    • Your professor wants you to argue a specific position about whether social media is beneficial or harmful to social interaction.
    • After researching social media platforms, history, and applications, you decide to argue that social media is a beneficial tool.
    • You outline three main points: 1) that social media is popular and widespread; 2) that social media connects humans to one another faster than ever before; and 3) that social media often does social good.
    • To illustrate your first point, you give a historical overview of the rise of social media while sharing facts, figures, and charts on social media's growth and popularity.
  • Specific Purpose of a Speech

    • For example, if the topic is social media and the speaker's intention is to inform, the specific purpose would be to inform your audience about social media.
    • In this case, the more specific purpose might be to inform the audience about the evolution of Twitter as a social media platform.
    • For example, when giving a persuasive speech about the rise of Twitter as a dominant form of social media, the speaker's general purpose is to persuade, and the specific purpose is to persuade about the notion that Twitter is a dominant form of social media.
    • At the end of the day, the speaker is still trying to achieve the specific purpose to persuade your audience to believe that Twitter is a dominant social media platform.
  • Proxemics

    • Social distance between people is reliably correlated with physical distance: intimate, personal, social and public.
    • Social distance between people is reliably correlated with physical distance, as are intimate and personal distance, according to the delineations below.
    • According to Hall in his book, The Hidden Dimension, space in nonverbal communication may be divided into four main categories: intimate, social, personal, and public space .
    • Generally, public speaking will occur in the far phase of the social distance and primarily in the public distance.
    • But, going beyond the basic considerations, the speaker may want to consider strategies for making the public space more social and personal to achieve conversational goals.
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