Seeing someone buy something makes us more likely to do the same, says Pedro M. Gardete at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Analyzing data on in-flight purchases to understand social effects in purchase behavior, he finds that when passengers see someone next to them make a purchase, they’re 30% more likely, on average, to buy something themselves. This did not hold true if they saw a purchase by someone sitting behind them or diagonally in front of them. And the likelihood that a passenger will buy something doubles if the person making a purchase next to them is someone they know. Friends and peers have a lot of sway over what we buy and when we buy it, Gardete says.
Source: Pedro M. Gardete: Fellow Airline Passengers Influence What You Buy
