How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 240

sense of belonging, or a sense of family — typically a feeling they never
experienced in their own home lives.[6]
I once attended a college football game between two fierce cross-town
rivals. Emotions were high, and we all wanted our home team to win. One
of the fans near me was using a megaphone to taunt the other team and its
fans. He only meant it in good fun, but it was not too long before a rent-acop came up to the man and told him he could not use the megaphone
during the game. The rent-a-cop stood in the middle of the aisle of the
sold-out game. The fan said he was just having fun but the rent-a-cop
stressed that it was strictly against the rules. Then the social pressure and
validation kicked in. Other fans nearby told the rent-a-cop that the fan's
overzealous actions were okay and that there was no problem. The rent-acop tried to persist, but the crowd only grew louder in their protests.
Finally, the rent-acop decided it wasn't worth the hassle and left.
Even watching someone else "do what's right" will give your cause social
validation. For example, one study asked 10,000 high school students to
give blood. The study found that students who had been exposed to thirtyeight photos of high school blood-drive scenes were 17 percent more
likely to donate blood than the students who had not seen the photos.
Seeing others do the right thing prompts us to socially validate the cause
and to jump on board.[7]
[5]D. L. Altheide and J. M. Johnson, "Counting Souls: A Study of Counseling at
Evangelical Crusades," Pacific Sociological Review (1977): 323–348.
[6]Craig Soderholm, How 10% of the People Get 90% of the Pie (New York: St.
Martin, 1997), p. 69.
[7]I. Sarason, G. Sarason, E. Pierce, B. Sherin, and M. Sayers, "A Social
Learning Approach to Increasing Blood Donations," Journal of Applied Social
Psychology (1991): 21.

Social Validation: The Power of the Group
In another study, researchers had very young children who were terrified
of dogs watch a little boy play with his dog for twenty minutes a day.
After only four days, 67 percent of the children were willing to sit in a
playpen with a dog and even remain with it when everyone else left the
room. The results were lasting, too: One month later, the same children
were just as eager to play with dogs.[8] In a similar study, children who
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