how to avoid the bandwagon effect
minimizing the bandwagon effect can be a difficult process groupthink is difficult to escape as are the biases that humans are socially prone to having there are three steps you can take to minimize the bandwagon effect you may eventually choose not to follow the crowd in some cases you might discover that the popular choice is also a good one for you either way you ll feel more confident if you ve taken the time to research and make your decision because it s what you want to do not just what everyone else is doing who first identified the bandwagon effect the term bandwagon stems from the 1848 u s presidential election during zachary taylor s successful campaign a popular performance clown invited taylor to join his circus bandwagon taylor received a significant amount of renown and people started claiming that his political opponents might also want to jump on the bandwagon 