Would You Like This Article More If You Had To “Like” It On Facebook Before Reading?
Many of the world’s most powerful brands are doubling down on Facebook, from President Obama to The New Yorker. The powerful, hidden psychology of a fan page might just make this a worthwhile bet. Psychologists have long known that tiny, voluntary actions can cause sweeping changes in our opinions, transforming luke-warm attitudes into concrete beliefs. In other cases, the mere perception of a name or idea in the news can cause us to wildly exaggerate its importance. Here we’ll take a deep dive into the social psychology of manipulation and how the simple act of a Facebook ‘like’ could have the exact intended outcome that these messaging brands, like politicians and newspapers, are seeking.
Dissonance
Rationalization, arguably social psychology’s most powerful known cognitive force, predicts that a user will unwittingly feel much more positively about brand after they click ‘like’ than before–namely, because our actions secretly influence our opinions.
The academic term for rationalization, “Cognitive Dissonance,” was popularized by social science great Leon Festinger, who discovered how to manipulate undergraduates into enjoying an exceedingly boring game. After a painful hour of play, one group was offered $1 to lie to a fellow student about how enjoyable the game was, and the other group was offered $20. The academically earth-shattering result was that the group paid $1 was far more likely to say they enjoyed the game in a post-experiment survey.
Why? Participants in the high-reward group easily rationalized their decision as greed-driven, whereas the low-reward group needed a justification, and end up convincing themselves how much they actually enjoyed the game, rather than believe their integrity could be purchased for a $1. Dissonance/rationalization has been replicated countless times since: appliances are rated higher post-decision, smokers who fail to quit downplay the dangers of their habit, and students who cheat have less ethical qualms after doing it once.
Every opportunity to reflect on our choices is an opportunity to reconstruct a past view of ourselves as flawless decision-makers.
The New Yorker laid out a perfect dissonance bear trap by requiring readers to like their Facebook page in order to read Jonathan Franzen’s 12,000 word story about the island in Robinson Crusoe; everyone but die-hard fans needed to rationalize why he was worth so much more effort than other articles on the Internet, likely turning many luke-warm spectators into full-fledged fans.
Even if the effect is small, it’s all many messaging brands need: a handful of highly active users spreading buzz, creating viral videos, and recruiting friends.