When “What We See” Becomes “What Most People Do”
How do you know what “most people” do? Not what they claim on surveys, not what official statistics report, but what they actually do in everyday life.
Most of the time, we learn socially. We watch who arrives early at work. We notice how colleagues greet clients. We observe how much others give in a shared decision. Gradually, we form an understanding of what is “normal” and in turn, that perception shapes our behavior.
But what if that perception is wrong?
In “The Common Behavior Effect in Norm Learning,” Thomas K.A. Woiczyk, Rahil Hosseini, and Gaël Le Mens investigate a simple question: when we learn norms through repeated observation, do we accurately infer what most people do? Or do we mistake the most frequently observed behavior for the behavior of the majority?
Across multiple experiments, the researchers find a consistent pattern. When exposure is uneven, people tend to follow what they see most often — even if fewer people are actually doing it. In short, what looks common can override what is common.
About the Author
Samantha Lau
Samantha graduated from the University of Toronto, majoring in psychology and criminology. During her undergraduate degree, she studied how mindfulness meditation impacted human memory which sparked her interest in cognition. Samantha is curious about the way behavioural science impacts design, particularly in the UX field. As she works to make behavioural science more accessible with The Decision Lab, she is preparing to start her Master of Behavioural and Decision Sciences degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, you can catch her at a concert or in a dance studio.
