"Influence" by Robert B. Cialdini

"The Powerful influence of filmed examples in changing the behavior of children can be used as therapy for various other problems. Some striking evidence is available in the research of Psychologist Robert O'Connor (1972) on socially withdrawn preschool children.We have all seen children of this sort; terribly shy, standing alone at the fringes of the games and groupings of their peers. O'Connor was worried that this early behavior was the beginning of what was to become a long-term pattern of isolation, which in turn could create persistent difficulties in social comfort and adjustment through adulthood. In an attempt to reverse the pattern, O'Connor made a film containing 11 different scenes in a nursery-school setting. Each scene began by showing a different solitary child watching some social activity then actively participating, to everyone's enjoyment. O'Connor selected a group of the most severely withdrawn children from four pre-schools and showed them the film. The impact was impressive.After watching the film, the isolates immediately began to interact with their peers at a level equal to the normal children in the schools. Even more astonishing was what O'Connor found when he returned to the schools six weeks later to observe. While the withdrawn children who had not seenO'Connor's film remained as isolated as ever, those who had viewed it were now leading their schools in amount of social activity. It seems that this 23-minute movie, viewed just once, was enough to reverse a potential lifelong pattern of maladaptive behavior. Such is the potency of the prinicple of social proof."