(See “Critical Reading” in Chapter 1)

1

Peer pressure gets bad press, but in some cases more of it might make the world a better place. In California, psychologists recently found that they could get people to conserve electricity with a simple notice, delivered to their doorstep, telling them how their consumption compared with the neighborhood average. In the weeks that followed, homeowners who were consuming more electricity than their neighbors cut back — presumably because they were embarrassed to be out of step with the herd.

2

The research, reported in Psychological Science, reflects growing interest in what’s known as “social-norms marketing” — attempting to change behavior by telling people what their peers do. The basic concept is about two decades old, but psychologists have been intensifying efforts to find more effective ways of using it. And now, with a growing recognition of the limits of browbeating, a wide range of groups — from climate-change activists to college deans trying to keep students from drinking themselves to oblivion — have been making peer pressure their ally.

3

“The norm is like a magnet,” says Robert Cialdini, a professor at Arizona State University who is an author of the new study. “What’s appropriate to do, in most people’s minds, is what other people like them do.”

4

The social-norms approach is part of a general movement to make productive use of insights into the quirks of the human psyche. For example, psychologists have found that presenting people with a wide range of choices (about almost anything) can frustrate and immobilize them, so that they end up making no choice at all or a bad choice. Supermarket managers and policy experts designing health plans have taken note.

5

Cialdini’s work tends to focus on the environment. In a paper from 2003, he identified a problem with signs in the Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona, intended to discourage the theft of ancient, irreplaceable wood. The signs sternly warned that America’s “heritage” was being “vandalized” by “theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year.”

6

That sent the message that pocketing souvenirs was the norm for tourists, Cialdini argues. In an on-site experiment, he and his coauthors demonstrated that by making use of new signs that stressed how few people removed items from the park and that by symbolically isolating those who do (on the sign, thieving stick figures had red slashes through them), the park could cut vandalism substantially.

7

In another experiment, Cialdini has shown that hotels will have more success encouraging their clients to reuse towels if they alter the wording of their appeals. “Join your fellow guests in helping to save the environment: A majority of our guests use their towels more than once” works better than any other approach.

8

In Minnesota, a study by the Department of Revenue found that informing taxpayers that most people don’t cheat on their taxes improved tax compliance more than stressing the link between taxes and popular public programs.

9

The field is still in flux: The effects of peer pressure remain hard to measure and hard to manipulate — yet the tug of the herd mindset is everywhere. Coincidentally, I recently came across a survey that found that 80 percent of adult males in the United States have six or fewer drinks in a week. I was taken aback, assuming the average was higher. I skipped wine with dinner a few times that week.

10

Later that same week, I read in an economics journal that freelance businessmen — I’m a freelancer — report only about 60 percent of their income, according to IRS estimates. Yet I’m scrupulous to the penny. Do I want to remain abnormal? Does anyone? I filed for an extension, so I’ve got some time to think about it.