social proof

Others' attention is treated as evidence. The crowd does not discover the event; it creates the event by attending to it.

The empty room is not evidence of worse food. It is evidence that nobody has yet been given a reason to walk in, and that absence compounds.

A friend is a poor sample and an accountable one. A study is a good sample that cannot be questioned.

Reviews sample the strength of reaction, not the population. Volume increases precision about the wrong quantity.

A norm needs no believers, only enforcers. Zealous enforcement by the unconvinced is what keeps it looking supported.

In person, refusal costs a justification delivered to a face. Agreement therefore measures the cost of declining, not willingness.

Hedges are the least tellable part of any account, so they are lost first. Certainty accumulates without anyone adding it.

Aggregation cancels independent errors only. Discussion correlates them, then supplies confidence in the correlated result.

Withheld purchases look like weak demand. The channel is what observers can attribute, not what the till records.