Here’s a fun experiment to try - one that could even earn you $50: Stand on a busy sidewalk, pick an empty spot in the sky, and stare at it for a full minute. Most likely, what will happen is this: most people will walk past without glancing up, and virtually no one will stop to stare with you.

Now, go to the same place the next day, and take along four friends with you to look upward too. Within 60 seconds, a crowd of passerby will have stopped to crane their necks skyward with the group.

This, at least, was the result of a study conducted in New York by three social psychologists in 1969. In their experiments, 80% of all passerby at the very least lifted their gaze to the empty spot that was being looked at.

Just for fun, this blog is now running an experiment - the individual or group who records a video of themselves doing this could win $50! There is only one winner - the group that can get the most people to look up with them in the shortest space of time. I’m also only paying one person in the group, so you’ll have to decide who is going to receive the money if you win! (If you’d like to sponsor this experiment, and so expand the prize money, contact me.) Most cell phones have video recording facilities nowadays, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Then, I’d recommend you upload the video to YouTube and mention this site at the start of the video. I’ll post the best “sky staring” videos on this blog.

(By the way, if you notice a spate of people looking aimlessly into the sky over the coming days and weeks, you know exactly who’s to blame!)

Follow the crowd

Why does this work? It’s due to a powerful law of influence called social proof. This law says that…

We view a behaviour as correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.

Put more simply: when we’re not sure how to act in a given situation, we tend to follow what others do.

Have you ever experienced this yourself? I think most of us have. For instance, have you ever found yourself curious to know what a crowd’s looking at, and so you’ve gone to check it out - making the crowd just that little bit bigger? Have you ever brought something because lots of other people were doing the same?

(For instance, if you’re a Harry Potter fan, how did you first discover the books? Was it by some random book-of-the-month mailing… or was it because a lot of other people were doing the same thing?)

As you continue to read this blog over the coming days and months, I’ll show you how this rule can help you in so many online activities - for example: how to get the highest bids for your Ebay auctions (yes, researchers have actually done scientific studies on this, and guess what? Most of the so-called Ebay “experts” are wrong!), how to get the most people reading and talking about your blog, and how to get more people to buy more of your products and services.

You’ll discover that social proof can work for you, but also against you, so make sure you stay tuned to this channel - the Internet Influence Magic channel.

In the meantime, go stare at the sky with your friends!

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