Published: November 26, 2009 11:49 pm      

STAWAR: On the bandwagon

There are times when it seems that we are all on the same wavelength. A restaurant or store opens, or a new product is introduced and suddenly we are all behaving exactly alike.

In these situations, it is as if we share a collective consciousness or “hive mentality,” like termites or bees. I suppose this swarming is not so unusual, since we are all well exposed to basically the same information and share a core set of beliefs.

After a while, we generally start diverging again. It is like when baseball great Yogi Berra was asked why he no longer went to a popular St. Louis restaurant. He said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

In other cases, the so-called “Bandwagon Effect” is clearly in operation. We do certain things or have certain beliefs, primarily because other people do. As more people join in, there is increasing pressure for us to “hop on the bandwagon.”

We often look to other people to get information on how we should behave. Such conformity is generally adaptive, from an evolutionary perspective, and perhaps that’s why we feel embarrassed or uncomfortable going against the tide.

This seems especially true for people like me, with some degree of attention deficit issues. Back in elementary school, I remember often not attending to instructions and scrambling to get my behavior to conform with that of the kids around me to avoid standing out and getting into trouble. I usually correctly assumed that the other kids knew what we were suppose to do better than I did.

Also called the herd instinct, this strong tendency to follow the crowd, can lead us to doubt our own judgment. What else could account for leisure suits, granny glasses and Vego-matics.

We call a practice or interest that is adopted by many people and followed with enthusiasm for a limited period of time a fad. Crazes are fads that originate with some smaller segment of society and quickly diffuse into the mainstream, only to eventually fade away.

In 2006, University of Delaware sociologist Joel Best wrote about our relationship with fads in his best-seller, “Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads.” According to Best, Americans are especially vulnerable to fads because of our optimism, competitiveness, belief in positive change and our fear of being viewed as out-of-step with the times.

In America, being thought to be old-fashioned is the ultimate humiliation. Our oldest son — who always said that he had to drag us into the 21st century — would make ka-chunk, ka-chunk sounds when using our slow, outdated computer.

Best distinguishes between pop culture fads such as the hula hoop, Cabbage Patch Dolls and bell bottoms and intuitional fads that are seen in fields such as education, medicine and business.

My field of psychology is especially notorious in this regard with such dubious innovations as primal-scream therapy, marathon encounter groups and past-lives therapy. A few years ago, multiple personalities were all the rage and for a while, diagnoses of this controversial disorder skyrocketed.

While often amusing and entertaining, there can be a serious downside to fads. Best argues that unlike pop culture crazes, institutional fads have significant social costs. They are not only expensive and intrusive, but they often delay the implementation of effective solutions allowing problems to fester and only grow worse.

It is very difficult to predict if something is just a passing fancy, like the Macarena or Boy George, or truly a paradigm shift, like the Twist and the Beatles. Fads typically have a three part life-cycle: 1. emerging, 2. surging and 3. purging.

We can’t really judge a fad’s ultimate staying power by its popularity when it is surging.

As a case in point, the school uniforms fad of the 1990s seemed to offer a simple solution for all sorts of issues. During its surge, it also had broad appeal that stretched across the political spectrum.

Conservatives saw it as promoting military-style discipline, order and classical academic emphasis. Liberals, on the other hand, saw it as an opportunity for the egalitarian leveling of social class differences. While still kicking around, it’s a side show now and is no longer touted as a panacea for all of our educational woes.

The credibility of institutional fads also increases when the fad is identified with prestigious institutions, such as corporations, universities or high-status organizations.

An idea that emanates from the Harvard Business Review is hard for much business to resist and still consider themselves cutting-edge. Similarly, what serious dieter could reject something called the South Beach or Mayo Clinic Diet.

Ineffective intuitional fads often endure because of the inadequate evaluation of outcomes or ideological pressures. Over time, they may even become institutionalized. For example, Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs, hate-crime legislation and highly punitive drug laws all have been repeatedly proven to be ineffectual, yet their public appeal is so strong, few politicians would dare oppose them.

So, how do we deal with intuitional fads, so that we become fad-proof? Professor Best says the first step is to always to insist on convincing evidence. We also have to remain very skeptical about believing outlandish claims. Finally, we have to fight the fear of being left behind, when everyone else is getting on the bandwagon.

Pop culture fads can also be a big waste of time and money, but that’s a small price to pay for that look of envy in the eyes of people not as tuned into the latest fashions.

Terry L. Stawar, Ed.D., lives in Georgetown and is the CEO of LifeSpring the local community mental health center in Jeffersonville. He can be reached at tstawar@lifespr.com or 812-206-1234. Checkout his Welcome to Planet-Terry podcast at www.lifespr.com/podcast.