93. When People are Uncertain, They Look to Others to Decide What to Do
Has this ever happened to you? You are making a presentation at the end of which you will be asking people to decide on a plan of action. You’ve talked individually to all the participants ahead of time, and consensus is that people want to move ahead with the decision to act. You give your presentation, and then the discussion about the decision ensues. To your surprise, the group ends up deciding not to make a decision or take an action at this time. What happened?
Uncertainty Tips the Scale
In my book Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?, I talk about the tendency to look to others to decide what to do. It’s called social validation.
Bibb Latane and John Darley (
Get 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
