Is Social Proof Unfair?
I just received an email from 38 degrees asking me to vote on which action the government should take to mitigate the effects of deep cuts to public services (see screenshot).
Fair enough... it strikes me as pretty odd that the previous government's spending policy is being blamed for financial crisis that was really caused by risky financial instruments.
However, in asking for a vote from a user, they've presented the existing voting at the point of voting. I can imagine this does encourage people to vote, but it will also be influencing what they vote for: people naturally go for options that they see other people taking, not exactly fair.
You could easily be swayed away from the issue you felt strongly about just by seeing what everyone else is doing.
Fair enough... it strikes me as pretty odd that the previous government's spending policy is being blamed for financial crisis that was really caused by risky financial instruments.
However, in asking for a vote from a user, they've presented the existing voting at the point of voting. I can imagine this does encourage people to vote, but it will also be influencing what they vote for: people naturally go for options that they see other people taking, not exactly fair.
You could easily be swayed away from the issue you felt strongly about just by seeing what everyone else is doing.
24 September 2010
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