Word.ws English Dictionary

social proof

social proof noun: a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others if unsure how to behave.

Noun

social proof (uncountable)

  1. A psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others if unsure how to behave.

Origin of social proof

Coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence.

Questions about social proof

What does social proof mean?
Social proof means a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others if unsure how to behave.
What part of speech is social proof?
Social proof is a noun.

Words near social proof in the dictionary

  1. social profiles
  2. social programming
  3. social project management
  4. social promotion
  5. social promotions
  6. social proof
  7. social psychologies
  8. social psychology
  9. social realism
  10. social recruiting
  11. social responsibilities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: social proof (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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