Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect can be described as the psychological inclination of a person or group of individuals to go along with an idea or concept based on the number of people that have already accepted it. (Sundar S. Shyam, 2008) It is a form or irrational exuberance when people base their actions on the behavior of other people, regardless of the lack of sufficient evidence to back up particular claims.

When it comes to activities that require collaboration between different members, bandwagon is thought of as being a useful tactic since it helps in dealing with the uncertainty and complexity that comes with a new project or group activity. People subconsciously desire to conform to the direction that their group is heading towards and, as such, become more inclined towards ideas accepted by the group, even if the ideas clash with what the person thinks or believes is right. (Myers David G, 1977)

Bandwagon can have several caveats. One of the first issues is that it can cause divisions within the team as different individuals’ bandwagon towards different proposed ideas. For example, office politics is an aspect of business culture that is almost unavoidable with different factions often appearing in a company. A team leader in one faction could propose an idea, and they will be supported by those within their faction due to the bandwagon effect.

At the same time, individuals from the other camp are likely to go against it simply because it was proposed by someone from another faction within the company. This can have an adverse impact on team performance since there would be conflicting notions and justifications over ideas, causing a gradual deterioration of performance within the company. People are likely to support the idea that their faction proposed, resulting in the possibility of internal sabotage such as non-compliance to company directives or directly interfering in how the plan of the opposing faction is going to be implemented.

Aside from this, there are also instances where the bandwagon effect could cause groups to support terrible ideas. For example, the leader of a team could propose an idea that is inherently flawed and, despite this, there are going to be people who will support and join the team leader simply because he/she is the one in charge (Chiocchio Francois, 2016). This is a significant problem since an idea that is likely to lead to disastrous consequences is not being vetted and appropriately evaluated by team members due to irrational exuberance, simply because it is being presented by a leader in the company.