Yes! Social Proof

I'm reading "Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Robert B. Cialdini. It's a fun read with some practical application. It was recommended on a pastor's website.

[the book begins] These days...with the increasing adoption of environmental programs by hotels, more and more travelers are being asked to reuse their towels to help conserve environmental resources, save energy, and reduce the amount of detergent-related pollutants released into the environment. In most cases, this request comes in the form of cards placed in guests’ bathrooms—cards that provide some surprising insights into the remarkable science of persuasion. A survey of the persuasive messages conveyed by dozens of request cards from a wide variety of hotels around the globe reveals that these cards most commonly attempt to encourage towel recycling efforts by focusing guests almost exclusively on the importance of environmental protection. In other words, guests are almost invariably informed that reusing their towels will conserve natural resources and help spare the environment from further depletion, disruption, and corruption. To further draw guests’ attention to the impact of towel recycling on the environment, this information is often accompanied by various eye-catching, environment-related pictures in the background, ranging from rainbows to raindrops to rainforests…to reindeer.

[but the lowely card writers fail to understand] the power of the principle of social proof.

[Some zany researchers discovered that] the majority of hotel guests who encounter the towel reuse signs do actually recycle their towels at least some time during their stay. [so they asked themselves] What if we simply informed guests of this fact?

[What they found was] Guests who learned that the majority of other guests had reused their towels (the social proof appeal), which was a message that we’ve never seen employed by even a single hotel, were 26 percent more likely than those who saw the basic environmental protection message to recycle their towels. ...we showed that just by making a small change to the way in which the request is made, hotel chains can do much, much better.

This is great for the environment. Let's apply it to church.

I'd like to let all you non-Christians out there know that thousands of people are becoming Christian everyday. In fact, everyone's doing it! Why don't you get on board? [Forgive the sarcasm. Why does this NOT sound like a Jesus sales pitch?]

Looking forward to seeing a ton of people tomorrow at church. Truth is, I'm not much of a salesman. But I will try to sell you on this tomorrow... YOU are the hope of the world. In fact, your very presence in your circles gives God hope.