The patrolman’s account provides certain insights into the way we respond to social proof. First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing… - Robert B. Cialdini

First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don’t.

we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided

there’s a telling answer to the question of what Albert Einstein claimed was so remarkable it could be labeled as both “the most beautiful thing we can experience” and “the source of all true science and art.” His contention: the mysterious.

The second important thing to understand is that we, too, have our preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can be used to dupe us into playing them at the wrong times.