The Bandwagon Effect: Momentum Is Everything

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The Bandwagon Effect

The Bandwagon Effect is a form of group­think where the pop­ular­ity of a trend, idea, or opin­ion encour­ages more people to “jump on the band­wag­on.” Much of the sci­entif­ic research on the Bandwagon Effect stems from research on polit­ic­al communications.

“Opinion polls can lead to a ‘band­wag­on effect’ where people adopt major­ity views, or a ‘under­dog effect’ where people adopt minor­ity views, poten­tially impact­ing social sci­ence pre­dic­tions and poll­sters’ pro­fes­sion­al repu­ta­tions.”
Source: British Journal of Political Science ¹Marsh, C. (1985). Back on the Bandwagon: The Effect of Opinion Polls on Public Opinion. British Journal of Political Science, 15, 51 — 74. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​7​/​S​0​0​0​7​1​2​3​4​0​0​0​0​4​063.

For PR pro­fes­sion­als, lever­aging the Bandwagon Effect can be a power­ful strategy to cre­ate momentum for a cam­paign, product, or idea. They can per­suade more people to engage with it by high­light­ing its pop­ular­ity or wide­spread acceptance. 

For instance, show­cas­ing high num­bers of users, pos­it­ive testi­mo­ni­als, or celebrity endorse­ments can encour­age oth­ers to fol­low suit, believ­ing that such wide­spread accept­ance implies value or correctness.

“The band­wag­on effect sig­ni­fic­antly influ­ences voter pref­er­ences, explain­ing 6% of the vari­ance in voter pref­er­ences, with stronger effects for women and indi­vidu­als with more arous­able and less dom­in­ant tem­pera­ments.”
Source: Journal of Applied Social Psychology ²Mehrabian, L. (1998). Effects of Poll Reports on Voter Preferences. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 2119 – 2130. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​1​1​/​J​.​1​559 – 1816.1998.TB01363.X

The Bandwagon Effect can also pose a chal­lenge in PR, espe­cially when man­aging counter-nar­rat­ives or attempt­ing to change pub­lic opin­ion on a well-entrenched idea. Overcoming the iner­tia of a widely held belief or trend requires stra­tegic and often more cre­at­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts. 

“The band­wag­on effect in opin­ion polls can be gen­er­ated by con­cav­ity in voters’ util­ity func­tions, mak­ing elect­or­al par­ti­cip­a­tion more costly for expec­ted loser sup­port­ers, and high­light­ing the role of risk aver­sion in this effect.”
Source: Public Choice ³Grillo, A. (2017). Risk aver­sion and band­wag­on effect in the pivotal voter mod­el. Public Choice, 172, 465 – 482. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11127-017‑0457‑5

The Bandwagon Effect is a double-edged sword in PR: it can be har­nessed to amp­li­fy and spread a desired mes­sage, but it also rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant hurdle when attempt­ing to shift pub­lic opin­ion away from an estab­lished trend.

Learn more: The Bandwagon Effect: Momentum Is Everything