What some of us have been suspecting all along

[Urban Ranger]

How rubbish floats to the top (of charts)

In the social influence group, participants were provided with the same song list, but could also see how many times each song had been downloaded.

Researchers found that popular songs were popular and unpopular songs were unpopular, regardless of their quality established by the other group. They also found that as a particular songs' popularity increased, participants selected it more often.

The upshot for markerters: social influence affects decision-making in a market.

This research is detailed in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science.

We have loads of rubbish pop songs here as well. But then, all the new pop songs are rubbish, so what can a person do?

[Sava]

Researchers created an artificial "music market" of 14,341 participants drawn from a teen-interest Web site

anyone who is surprised by these results should be hit in the head with a mallet...




repeatedly

[Sava]

AND OZZY WANTS TO LET THESE PEOPLE VOTE?!?!?!

[Urban Ranger]

Not surprised at all. It just confirms my suspicion.

[Zkribbler]

(j/k)

[Sava]

Zkrib


I take it back... you are funnier than MrFun

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I dunno. A some basic sociological level, it makes sense.

If you're walking down the street and see one man staring into the distance, you'd probably think nothing of it. But is you saw a crowd of people staring in the same direction, you'd stop and look, too, not because you are a sheep but because you'd wonder what all the fuss was about.

I think most of us do this, in one way or another. I've tried restaurants just because I've heard they're popular, and wanted to see why; I've watched episodes of things as diverse as "Desparate Housewives" and "Deadwood" just too see for myself why others thought them worth the bother.

Seems to me this is more mockable for its "researching the obvious" qualities than for the results of the study.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
If you're walking down the street and see one man staring into the distance, you'd probably think nothing of it. But is you saw a crowd of people staring in the same direction, you'd stop and look, too, not because you are a sheep but because you'd wonder what all the fuss was about.

I found it most perplexing that people gathering around to look at a fire or somebody at the roof of a building deciding whether to jump down or not. And most of them don't just try to find out the cause of said commotions but stay behind in the streets.

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
I think most of us do this, in one way or another. I've tried restaurants just because I've heard they're popular, and wanted to see why; I've watched episodes of things as diverse as "Desparate Housewives" and "Deadwood" just too see for myself why others thought them worth the bother.

That's true. A crowded restaurant tends to attract even more customers.