VIP Class Notes (Tony) [W]

SPEAKING PRACTICE!

The bandwagon effect is a well-documented form of groupthink in behavioral science. Consumer’s beliefs spread among people, then become fads and trends to encourage more people to join. The tendency to follow the actions or beliefs of others can occur because individual’s preference to conform or desire to fit in.

When a businessman knows how to use it correctly, it becomes a powerful theory to expand his business and even create a new fad. It is nothing unusual to see hundreds of customers waiting in queues for globally anticipated products such as the latest iPhone. For such expensive and at least involved some kind of high tech products, I can understand that you may want to spend hours on getting it. However, recently, a lot of young people in China can line up for several hours for buying a cup of cheese tea. Later some news showed that such kind of fever is also created by the merchants. They hire people to line up and take advantage of people’s conformist mentality to attract more consumers. We may not realize it, but the “smart” merchants just use some psychological theory to affect our decisions in our daily lives.

The bandwagon effect is a well-documented form of groupthink in behavioral science. Consumer (adj) Beliefs spread among people, then become fads and trends encouraging more people to jump on. The tendency to follow the actions or beliefs of others comes from an individual’s preference to conform or desire to fit in.

When a businessman knows how to use it correctly, it becomes a powerful tool to expand his business and even create a new fad. It is not unusual to see hundreds of customers waiting in queues for globally anticipated products such as the latest iPhone. For such expensive items which involve some kind of new tech, I can understand that you may want to spend hours on getting it. However, recently, a lot of young people in China can line up for several hours for buying to buy a cup of cheese tea. Later some news showed that this kind of fever is also created by the merchants. They hire people to line up and take advantage of people’s conformist mentality to attract more consumers. We may not realize it, but the “smart” merchants just use some psychological trick to affect our decisions in our daily lives.

Grammar

The tendency comes from the desire.

For such expensive hotels, the rooms should be nicer.

spend hours on something

spend hours doing something

Vocabulary

ride someone’s coattails – Coat tails were just long pieces that hung of a coat. Usually in the past, only wealthy successful people would have these kind of clothes. But if you had a friend, you could ride his coat tails and pretend to be successful.

eg: Now that Lebron James is moving to a new team. There will be many players trying to ride his coat tails.

Choose a topic for a speaking practice next class.