In today's society, popularity is a significant factor on daily lives, however there are many questions to how certain movements or ideas become popular. Many people don't realize the influence popularity has on their daily decisions or actions. For instance, if an individual has to make a decision between a pair of Nike shoes over a no-name brand, the individual would most likely choose the Nike shoes due to its credibility and recognition. However, if the Nike symbol was removed, there is a chance more people would gravitate towards the no-name brand. In the essay, "My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project," Bill Wasik explains how he was able to gain followers to create a flash mob, which was basically meaningless to society as a whole. Wasik explained that many of his followers …show more content…
Through bandwagon, movements gain more popularity. To gain more followers, Wasik employed bandwagon in order McFarlane ! 2 to make it seem that many people were going to participate. He states, "[a]ll it had was its own ironically wild, unsupportable claims — that 'tons' of people would be there..." (476). He defined this phenomenon as the "'bandwagon effect': the instinctive tendency of the human animal to rely on the actions of others in choosing its own course of action" (482). Many movements throughout history also used the bandwagon effect to promote their cause. Most notable of which is the Nazis, who used bandwagon to great effect.They portrayed themselves as a national community that provided aid to those who were low on the social scale and those who were on the higher on the social scale. It made those living in Germany feel a sense of unity and pride ("Rallying the Nation"). They used propaganda posters to express themselves as a source of unification and also depicted a huge following, persuading many to jump on the bandwagon. A less serious example of bandwagon is in sports. When a team is winning multiple awards