In the show Gilmore Girls, Rory is out of college and is on the hunt for a job as a writer, but just can’t seem to find one that fits. In an episode of Gilmore Girls, we find Rory desperate to write about anything, as she hasn’t had anything promising come upon her in a while. She agrees to write a silly piece about waiting in crazy long lines in New York city. Throughout her time interviewing people and talking with the people in these lines, she found out a lot of loop holes around the lines, realizing that a lot of people were waiting in them for the “cool” thing. When the last person she interviewed was asked “what are you waiting in line for?” he responds with “Uh I don’t know.” Crazy, right? To wait in a ridiculously long line, without even quite understanding why you’re in it? What a concept.

In chapter four of Cialdini’s book Influence, Cialdini introduces us to the idea of social proof. Cialdini says social proof is “one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.” (Cialdini, 116) The idea of social proof is that we as people have “the tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it.” (Cialdini, 116) We would rather look like we are conforming with those around us, than do something that we may feel is right or correct, but don’t because we don’t want to be the one to stand out. Cialdini tells us that social proof has both benefits and disadvantages when we act on it. This statement made by Cialdini, “We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it,” provides information to the overarching idea that social proof can affect us in any situation at any time, all based on those around us.

I found the Gilmore Girls clip a great example of social proof and a way in which to see it in a way we may have before, but just not recognized it. For example, one of the things in the episode everyone was waiting for was a “croughnut”. What is a croughnut you might ask? It is a croissant and a donut formed into one, but I wouldn’t have known that. And it is likely half the people in the line did not either. But, when someone said that the croughnut was so great and there was a long line for it, that influenced others to stand in the line without any reference. When she interviewed another man to ask what he was waiting in line for, he didn’t even know what it was for, but there he was, waiting in it. How crazy that someone would wait in a line without knowing what its for? While that might be a little dramatic, the idea that because everyone else was in the line, he would wait in it too is a great example of social proof.