This document outlines social psychology concepts related to fashion adoption, including majority/minority influence, bandwagon effects, and tipping points. It discusses how consistent minorities can influence majorities through private conversion over time. The threshold model of consumer behavior is presented, where people are more likely to purchase a product or service as others do in a "bandwagon effect," but may stop or reverse this trend once usage exceeds a maximum threshold. Factors that contributed to the viral spread of "Gangnam Style" included its appeal to celebrities and bloggers, its humorous and catchy nature making it easy to imitate, and the context of growing popularity of Korean entertainment and Asian pop stars on social media.

1. SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY ON
FASHION
Mark Ng
2014

2. OUTLINE
 Traditional view
 Majority effect and minority effect
 Bandwagon and Reverse
 Tipping point

3. ADOPTION OF NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
 Product factors -
 Need fulfillment
 Relative advantage
 Compatibility
 Complexity
 Visible
 Trialability
 Consumer factors –
 Personality
 Innovativeness
 Openness to experience
 Demographical factors:
age, income, education, etc.
 Motivational factors

4. MAJORITY VS MINORITY
 Is majority influence more “powerful” than minority influence?
 When a minority is faced with majority pressure…
 Who wins?
 Who is more likely to conform?
 How many people will conform to a unanimous majority as opposed to a
consistent minority?
 From this perspective the majority is always more powerful.

5. MINORITY INFLUENCE
 Minority influence exemplified in TV play & film “Twelve Angry
Men”
 12 jurors have to decide over the guilt or innocence of a young
man charged with the murder of his father.
 At outset of the play a single juror in the murder trial favours acquittal,
other 11 jurors favour conviction
 By end of play unanimously ‘not guilty’
 The minority (of 1) has influenced a majority jury

6. EXPERIMENTAL PARADIGM
Moscovici et al (1969)
 Responses to consistent minority influence
 Told female Ss that in colour perception experiment
 Task was to judge the colour of a series of slides that would vary in
intensity of colour and name this colour aloud when seated in a row of
groups of 6.
 In each group there were 2 confederates
 (Control group of 6 naïve Ss).

7. CONSISTENT MINORITY INFLUENCE
Green
Green
Confed 1 Confed 2
Blue
Blue Blue
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Blue

8. VARIATIONS
 Two subjects as confederates
 One subject as confederate
 Inconsistent confederate
 Change order of confederates

9. PERCENT OF GREEN RESPONSES GIVEN BY MAJORITY SS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Control Inconsistent Consistent
Minority Influence

10. BEHAVIOURAL STYLE
 Key factor in minority influence is consistency of
behavioural style
 Consistent:
 Across time & situation (diachronic consistency)
 Across individuals (synchronic consistency)
 Strength of conviction

11. THEORY OF MINORITY CONVERSION
Moscovici (1980)
 Majorities produce public compliance rather than conversion
 Direct, immediate, temporary effect of social influence
 Minorities challenge beliefs and produce private conversion
 Indirect, delayed, private effect of social influence

12. THRESHOLD MODEL OF CONSUMER:
BANDWAGON AND REVERSE
 When one buys depends on the number of other
 Bandwagon
 Reverse

13. WHY?
 Status-seeking
 Conformity
 To be fashionable and stylish

14. 2º 3º 4º 5º
RANKING MUNDIAL DE USUÁRIOS DE INTERNET
1º 6º
GRANOVETTER
I-phone

15. BANDWAGON VS REVERSE BANDWAGON
 When services or accessories for one’s purchase are more readily and
cheaply available the more others have purchased...can be a signal of
product quality
 People are unwilling to purchase until some minimum number of others
has (Bandwagon), but that also becomes less appealing once some
maximum number is exceeded (Reverse)

16. 16
2º 3º 4º 5º
RANKING MUNDIAL DE USUÁRIOS DE INTERNET
1º 6º
Innovations do not
spread equally over
different society
segments (social groups)
but through 5 stages
with particular profile of
reaction
Adoption of innovation over time

17. EARLY ADOPTER IS THE KEY!
17
2º 3º 4º 5º
RANKING MUNDIAL DE USUÁRIOS DE INTERNET
1º 6º
If innovators are
marketers target, Early
adopter has influence
power to what becomes a
market success.
Challenge for Marketing:
how to find these types
that are so valuable? its
identity depends on the
type of product or service?

18. WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE WAVE OF
GANGNAM STYLE?

19. TIPPING POINT
 TP: the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point
 Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses
do.
 The change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment, called
“Tipping Point” (the message makes an impact) .

20. GANGNAM STYLE – THE LAW OF THE FEW
1 Earliest notable reaction video by K-pop
fans Katy and Mindy Anderson, July 18, 2012
2 Earliest notable parody by K-pop bloggers
Simon and Martina Stawski, July 23
3a Earliest celebrity comment by Robbie
Williams on his personal blog, July 28
3b First featured in the foreign tabloid
newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, Finland, July 28
4 First celebrity tweet by T-Pain, July 29
5 Picked up by Neetzan Zimmerman from
the social blog Gawker, July 30
6 Featued in CNN International, August 3
7 Psy appears at the Dodgers
Stadium, August 20
8 Katy Perry shares the Gangnam Style music
video with her 25 million followers on
Twitter, August 21

21.  Celebrity and bloggers

22. STICKINESS?
 Humor appeal
 Sex appeal
 Music
 Repeated lyrics

23.  Easy to learn
(Imitate)

24. CONTEXT
 Korean entertainment – become more stylish
 Asian pop stars – become more important
 Social media