Social Proof in UX Design
How to apply it & a lot of real life examples
Social proof — the term
The term “social proof” was coined by Robert Cialdini in 1984 (also called “informational social influence”).
“One means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.” (Influence — The Psychology of Persuasion)
An example: in case of using canned laughter, the audience laughs more often and longer.
Conformity
Social proof is a type of conformity: we look to others for cues to decide how to behave. Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in the 1950s that explored how individuals conform to group opinions and social pressure.
The task was about comparing the length of lines: there was a same-length line, and a clearly shorter and a clearly longer line. In each trial, the7 actors deliberately chose an incorrect answer. The real participant, who was unaware of this setup, was seated last and had to give their answer after the actors. The control group’s error rate was 0.7%, while in the actor condition, 35.7% of the real participants conformed their answers (so in other words, they followed the wrong choice of the actors)!
This is the summary of these experiment series: “Despite the stress of the given conditions, a substantial proportion of individuals retained their independence throughout. At the same time a substantial minority yielded, modifying their judgments in accordance with the majority”
Case Study
Cialdini has recently shared an interesting case study about using social proof. Steve Martin made 5 billion pound additional revenue in the United Kingdom by making small tweaks in a letter sent out by the government.
The goal was to increase the number of British citizens who pay taxes on time. Steve Martin did the following changes:
1. He added that “The vast majority of British citizens pay their taxes on time” — “many” — makes the effect stronger; “British citizens” — same group
This resulted in +5% (67% → 72%)
2. Then in the next iteration round, he used these two variations:
a) “in your region” — result: 79%
b) “in your town” — result: 83% — Actions of people similar to you also makes the effect stronger (Cialdini calls this “peer-suasion”)
Types of social proof in design
Use the following as an inspirational design pattern list in your own projects:
- likes/dislikes or upvotes/downvotes
- followers, members, subscribers (backers etc.)
- shares, reposts
- testimonials, comments
- ratings
- reviews
- behavior of others (social filters), e.g. “most popular”, “bestseller”, “trending” tag or category; “people who bought this also bought”, “currently X visitors have this in their shopping cart”
- bookmarks, favorites
- success stories, case studies, real life examples
- rankings, top lists
- recommended by a leader of a given field (expert social proof) ~authority
- badges, awards, certificates
- list of brands that trusted you (e.g. as a designer)
- liked / recommended by your friends (it makes the effect stronger)
Do you know any other social proof design patterns? Please add it in the comments!
The benefits of using social proof
- It increases credibility & trust (especially if users are unfamiliar with the brand or the product, so it there is uncertainity)
- Encourages action: users have a tendency to see an action as more correct when others are doing it — this effect is stronger if the user belongs to the same group the social proof is coming from (e.g. from other designers)
- It provides a mental shortcut for users during decision making
How to apply social proof
- Identify what behavior / action you want your users to perform, then add social proof to that part (it should be relevant and specific)
- Never use fake social proof (~design ethics aspect)
- Keep in mind that the effect is weaker if the user is an expert of the given field (or knows the product really well)
- Choose the appropriate form of social proof and adapt it to your context (e.g. clap on Medium is part of the audience and theater analogy)
Social proof: real life examples
(All screenshots were done by me)
Do you like my sketches? Support my work!
If you like my sketches, you can buy me a coffee to support my work! Thanks, I really appreciate your encouragement! 🙏
If you like my sketches, check out my Sketching for UX Designers course on Udemy, use the coupon code SKETCHFORUX202310 to get 81% off! Click here to apply the code.
You can subscribe to my Sketching for UX newsletter to get my newest UX Knowledge Piece Sketch directly to your inbox each month. I also share my favorite design and visual thinking links.
Get my Sketching for UX Designers Workbook here for free (and you can choose to support me by paying a couple of dollars, I really appreciate your support!)
You can also grab a copy of my 100-day Long UX Visual Library Building Challenge book (also on a pay-what-you-want basis).
💬Please let me know what you think, I always appreciate you feedback!
Recommended reading & useful links
Asch, S.E. (1951) Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert Cialdini
5 billion pound letter — a Linkedin post by Robert Cialdini
