Conformity by Cass R. Sunstein
The Power of Social Influences
This book examines how social influences powerfully shape beliefs and behavior, showing how informational and normative pressures produce cascades, herding, echo chambers, and widespread conformity that can yield both useful coordination and serious error. Drawing on experiments, case studies, and legal and behavioral research, the author explains mechanisms such as social signals, reputational incentives, and group dynamics, documents harms like suppression of dissent, misinformation, and polarization, and surveys contexts from juries and markets to online platforms and politics. He argues that institutions, laws, and design choices can amplify or curb conformity, and offers practical recommendations—protecting independent voices, structuring deliberation, encouraging viewpoint diversity, and using legal and choice‑architecture tools—to limit harmful conformity while preserving beneficial social coordination.
- Published
- 2019
- Nationality
- American
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
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- Alternate Titles
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