Herd Mentality
The tendency to copy the behaviour of others rather than to evaluate independently.
Why it matters now
Copying is efficient and usually wise; it becomes dangerous only when everyone stops checking. The same mechanism that inflated housing bubbles is now driving heat-pump and solar adoption street by street. Making good behaviour visible turns imitation from a hazard into the fastest distribution channel available.
Where this is happening on Earth
- North AmericaOPOWER neighbour-comparison energy billsSimply showing households how their use compared with neighbours cut consumption measurably across millions of accounts.
- EuropeDutch cycling cultureA deliberate policy reversal in the 1970s made cycling visible and ordinary; imitation did the rest.
- AsiaRooftop solar clustering in Gujarat, IndiaInstallations concentrate along streets and kinship networks far more than income alone would predict.
- South AmericaBogotá's Ciclovía, ColombiaClosing main roads to cars every Sunday made active transport a mass public spectacle and then a habit.
- AfricaMobile money adoption in Kenya and GhanaPayment behaviour spread by imitation within trading networks, leapfrogging bank infrastructure entirely.
The idea itself
The encyclopedia entry first, then live searches at journals and magazines that keep returning current work on this specific idea.
Current reporting from around the world
Standing feeds at reputable periodicals. These stay fresh on their own, which is why they are here instead of a list of articles that would be out of date within a season.