The Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect is the observation that people often do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. The effect is often pejoratively referred to as herding instinct, particularly as applied to adolescents.

Without examining the merits of the particular thing, people tend to “follow the crowd.” The bandwagon effect is the reason for the bandwagon fallacy's success

Use in Politics

The bandwagon effect can be observed in voting: some people vote for those candidates or parties who are likely to succeed (or are proclaimed as such by the media), thus increasing their chances of being on the 'winner's side' in the end.

Bandwagon effect has been labeled to situations involving majority opinion, such as political outcomes, where people alter their opinions to the majority view.

During elections, poll results are broadcasted in the eastern parts of the United States while polls are still open in the west. Due to this trend, behavior of voters in western United States has been previously investigated. In 1980, NBC News declared Ronald Reagan to be the winner of the presidential race on the basis of the exit polls several hours before the voting booths closed in the west, which lead Reagan to defeat his Democratic opponent Jimmy Carter.

Use in Science

In science, the bandwagon effect is the phenomenon of scientists exercising self-censorship when reporting results which differ considerably from "accepted wisdom". For example, when measuring important values in astronomy, such as the distance of the Sun to the centre of the Milky Way, published values tend to agree with the accepted value at the time of publication, even if completely new measurement procedures are employed. When a measurement yields a result at variance with the then-accepted value, scientists will check their methods and calculations repeatedly and delay (or even abandon) publication, while results which agree with the accepted value are published uncritically.
Without the bandwagon effect, one would expect that published estimates for such a constant initially show a wide range of values and then converge over time as measurement precision increases. In reality however, published values often cluster closely together, with the whole cluster moving over time in a certain direction.


Use in Microeconomics

In microeconomics, bandwagon effect is a term for an interaction of demand and preference. The bandwagon effect arises when people's preference for a commodity increases as the number of people buying it increases. This interaction potentially disturbs the normal results of the theory of supply and demand, which assumes that consumers make buying decisions solely based on price and their own personal preference.

Use in the Music Industry

In music, bandwagon effect is a term for people who are fond of a musical group based on how popular the artist is at the time. For instance, certain people only appreciate a song once it is well-known.


Bandwagon fallacy

An argumentum ad populum (Latin: "appeal to the people"), in logic, is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that "If many believe so, it is so." In ethics this argument is stated, "If many find it acceptable, it is acceptable."

Examples

This fallacy is sometimes committed while trying to convince a person that a widely popular theory is true.

Since 88% of the people polled believed in UFOs, they must exist.

Since citizens have to pay taxes and are ruled by governments, the state must be a judicial reasoned and rightful institution.

Since most of the world believes in God, he must exist.


The fallacy is commonly found in arguments over ethics:

Most Americans hold that the Vietnam War was morally wrong. Therefore, the Vietnam War was morally wrong.


The fallacy is also commonly found in marketing:

Brand X vacuum cleaners are the leading brand in America. You should buy Brand X vacuum cleaners.


Other examples:

Fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong.

Christianity is believed in by the greatest amount of people in the world, so it must be true.