We tend to underestimate how much we’re influenced by others

πŸ’Ž We tend to underestimate how much we’re influenced by others (partly explains the popularity of the iPod)

They asked 40 owners of iPods how influenced they were by the trendiness of the product relative to their peers. The scale went from one (much less than average) to nine (much more than average), with five as average. So the neutral answer was clearly five. However, the average response from participants was 3.3.

Excerpt from: The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How not to be your own worst enemy by James Montier

HT: @rshotton

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