The Social Default

beginner3 min readbehavioral economics · psychology · sociology · business

The social default is a mental model describing the human tendency to conform to group behavior or beliefs to avoid standing out, driven by an evolutionary instinct to fit in. It leads to outsourcing our thinking, virtue signaling, and overestimating our willingness to resist social pressure.

THE IDEA

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

—WALTER LIPPMANN, The Stakes of Diplomacy

YEARS AGO, I WITNESSED A PARTICULARLY UGLY AND grim talk at a conference. When it ended, others started clapping. I hesitated but tentatively joined them anyway. It would have felt awkward not to.fn1

The social default inspires conformity. It coaxes us to fall in line with an idea or behavior simply because other people do. It embodies what the term “social pressure” refers to: wanting to belong to the crowd, fear of being an outsider, fear of being scorned, fear of disappointing other people.

Our desire to fit in with the group comes from our history. Group interests were well served from a high level of conformity. But so too were our individual interests. Survival inside the tribe was hard but survival outside the tribe was impossible. Because we needed the group, our individual interests became secondary to the group interests. Though the world we live in today is very different from the one we evolved from, we still look to others for cues on how to behave.

The social rewards for going with the crowd are felt long before the benefits of going against it are gained. One measure of a person is the degree to which they’ll do the right thing when it goes against the popular belief. However, it is easy to overestimate our willingness to diverge from the crowd, and underestimate our biological instinct to fit in.

The social default encourages us to outsource our thoughts, beliefs, and outcomes to others. When everyone else is doing something, it’s easy to rationalize doing it too. No need to stand out, take responsibility for outcomes, or think for yourself. Just put your brain on autopilot and take a nap.

The social default inspires virtue signaling—getting other people to accept or praise your professed beliefs. Especially when there is no cost to such signals.

Princeton professor Robert George wrote, “I sometimes ask students what their position on slavery would have been had they been white and living in the South before abolition. Guess what? They all would have been abolitionists! They all would have bravely spoken out against slavery, and worked tirelessly against it.”1

No, they wouldn’t have. They may understandably want to send that signal now when it’s safe to do so, but back then they would have likely behaved the same most everyone else did at the time.2

When to use it

In team decision-making, actively invite dissenting opinions to counteract the social default and avoid groupthink.
When making purchasing decisions, pause to ask whether your preference is genuine or just following a trend.
In social media, be mindful of liking or sharing content merely because it has many likes, not because you truly endorse it.
In ethics training, discuss how historical conformity shaped behavior and explore strategies to resist unjust social norms.

FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE

In practice

Clapping along despite disagreement

At a conference, the author witnessed an ugly talk. When others started clapping, he hesitated but then tentatively joined to avoid the awkwardness of standing out.

Virtue signaling about historical beliefs

Professor Robert George asks students what their position on slavery would have been as white Southerners before abolition; they all claim they would have been abolitionists, but the author argues they likely would have conformed to the prevailing norms.

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A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Put it to work.

Recall a time you agreed with a group publicly but secretly disagreed. What held you back from speaking up?
How can you design your environment or decision-making process to reduce the influence of the social default?
In what areas of your life today might you be adopting beliefs simply because they are socially acceptable, not because you've critically examined them?