Uploaded May 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
How do you get people to submit their tax returns on time? One way to do this (the traditional way), is to let them know the deadline and that there is a fine if they fail to meet it. This resulted in a compliance rate of 67.5%. But what if you were to add to this a simple piece of info? Do you think this figure would change? If so, by how much? Here are three variations of this:
Simply informing people that most others do submit their tax returns on time:
Informing people that most others in the same postal code submit their tax returns on time:
Informing people that most others in the same street/town submit their tax returns on time:
So – there you have it. Now imagine an academic setting. Instead of trying to persuade people about the importance of submitting their essays on time, you could inform them about how many students actually do so. Or perhaps about how many people in this particular course meet their academic obligations. Social Proof is a very potent weapon of influence for the teacher – and one which has been neglected so far.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
How do you get people to submit their tax returns on time? One way to do this (the traditional way), is to let them know the deadline and that there is a fine if they fail to meet it. This resulted in a compliance rate of 67.5%. But what if you were to add to this a simple piece of info? Do you think this figure would change? If so, by how much? Here are three variations of this:
Simply informing people that most others do submit their tax returns on time:
Informing people that most others in the same postal code submit their tax returns on time:
Informing people that most others in the same street/town submit their tax returns on time:
So – there you have it. Now imagine an academic setting. Instead of trying to persuade people about the importance of submitting their essays on time, you could inform them about how many students actually do so. Or perhaps about how many people in this particular course meet their academic obligations. Social Proof is a very potent weapon of influence for the teacher – and one which has been neglected so far.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
