A little while ago I bemoaned the way a scientific study was belittled because it wasted money on showing something that everyone knows. Now a book has come out on pop social psychology, and from a lengthy write-up on it in the Times it really does seem to be stuff that ‘everyone knows’ – yet strangely, even so, it has huge benefits.

I haven’t read the book, YES! yet, but the key point I picked up from the article is that people do things if they think other people do it as well. Everyone really does already know this, but the reason it’s a useful lesson is that we don’t make use of it.

The article gives the example of a little experiment in hotels. Apparently if you change the notice that says ‘please re-use your towels to help the environment’ to one that says ‘most guests reuse there towels at least once during their stay to help the environment’ the rate of reuse goes up significantly.

It’s not that this ‘social proof’ (which seems suspiciously like indirect peer pressure) is a new observation, but it’s still relatively rare to make use of it in this way.

I was less convinced by another of the points the authors make. Apparently more dentists are called Dennis than you might expect statistically, because it seems we prefer to go to Dennis the Dentist rather than, say Arnold the Dentist. This was based on US data – I’d be interested to see if this also applies in the UK. I can’t help but wonder if it’s more to do with coming from a country where it’s possible to ask for Krispy Kreme donut+ without cringing, rather than having positive feelings about people whose names sound similar to their professions.

+ I ought to make it clear that I have nothing against Krispy Kreme donuts (or doughnuts). They are my favourite doughnuts, and I would happily accept a free box of originals for mentioning their name twice. I just can’t see the name without sniggering.