{"id":2437,"date":"2022-03-18T03:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T03:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2437"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:11","slug":"the-downside-of-social-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2437","title":{"rendered":"THE DOWNSIDE OF SOCIAL PROOF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I read a fascinating article the other day by Katie Herzog about a professor accused by a colleague of inappropriate behavior. The woman who lodged the complaints got her picture on the cover of Time Magazine as a part of the MeToo Movement.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But four independent (and painstakingly thorough) investigations ruled that the professor did not break any school rules, much less any laws.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The professor was able to keep his job but the destruction of his reputation has made his life miserable.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, years after the original false allegations, Herzog visited campus and found a group of 40 students protesting this professor. They didn&#8217;t want new students to be unaware of what this professor had &#8220;done&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She asked one of the student organizers if he had ever read any of the 4 reports which exonerated the professor and the student confessed that he had not.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herzog writes, &#8220;What he had read were the articles about it in the media, and what he&#8217;d heard were the rumors that trail [the professor] around like an unwanted guest.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herzog ends her article with this kicker from that same student: &#8220;If I hear something from multiple people, I have no reason to doubt it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is wise to remember that there is no actual PROOF in &#8220;social proof&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read a fascinating article the other day by Katie Herzog about a professor accused by a colleague of inappropriate behavior. The woman who lodged the complaints got her picture on the cover of Time Magazine as a part of the MeToo Movement. But four independent (and painstakingly thorough) investigations ruled that the professor did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}