he says: “99.9% of all decisions are shaped by others. It’s hard to finda decision or behavior that isn’t affected by other people.”
Berger’s claim is we do not see how we are influenced by others. In multiple studies including Asch’s line length study in 1951, people choose the wrong answer because of groupthink, because everyone else did. I am interested in influence and the impact of social media on our choices. Multiple experiments say that the power of conforming is strong enough to select the wrong answer, “when the answer is clear, people still imitate others.” It is shocking but true that people will deny their reality to fit in with the group.
Berger’s questions include:
“When do we imitate others and when do we avoid what they are doing? When do peers motivate us to work harder and when do they drive us to give up? And what does all this mean for happiness, health, success, both at home and at work?”
What do we imitate? I agree with Berger people are overwhelmed for choice and “knowing others like something also encourages people to give it the benefit of the doubt. If that many people bought it, it must be good.” If someone famous is involved in a project, it often does better. If a television star is involved, we may be more likely to buy it or follow it or watch it.
“Even without us realizing it, other people are constantly influence what we think, buy and do. But does social influence go even further? Could it influence how hard we’re driven to achieve? Whether we’re motivated to work harder or give up and quit?”
I know I am motivated by other people’s success. When I can see that someone else has figured it out, I know it is possible. It might be a long shot but I can start to see the steps to make something happen. I believe as Berger states: “peers don’t just affect what we choose, they motivate us to action. Others make us bike faster, save more energy and turn losing into winning.”
I meet many people who want to work with me or be introduced to someone else. Recently, I was able to introduce a former student of mine from Nickelodeon to a Buzzfeed personality. They had both said, if they did not have their dream job, they would want the other person’s job. I knew that they had to meet!
Michelle Khare, Brec Bassinger, Lisa Niver at Buzzfeed
Michelle Khare and Brec Bassinger are finding their way in television, video and the Wild Wild West of the Internet. After I introduced them, Khare created a project at Buzzfeed for Bassinger and the video has been wildly successful!
When we work together without conforming, magic can happen. I created my We Said Go Travel Writing Award after seeing the 30th International Sand Art Competition in Konark, India. I believe that the first time someone suggested the competition, everyone else said, “that will never work.” That is what most people told me about We Said Go Travel–it will never work. But 10 awards later, I have published 1700 writers from 75 countries.
I believe I am influenced by others and I want to make sure I imitate those who can lead me in the direction of my dreams. I even made my own video of our day at Buzzfeed. I wonder what will happen next?
Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
Berger’s claim is we do not see how we are influenced by others. In multiple studies including Asch’s line length study in 1951, people choose the wrong answer because of groupthink, because everyone else did. I am interested in influence and the impact of social media on our choices. Multiple experiments say that the power of conforming is strong enough to select the wrong answer, “when the answer is clear, people still imitate others.” It is shocking but true that people will deny their reality to fit in with the group.
