It‘s one aspect of the power of association. If you hang around a lot of smokers, chances are higher that you’ll find yourself smoking too. Furthermore it can be harder to quit because you spend all of your time around cigarette smoke, plus your friends might say things to keep you from quitting.

Here’s another example incase that wasn’t enough. I recall I explained this once in the form of “votes”. We all know that we give someone power based on votes. We do something if the majority agrees to do this activity, etc.

When it comes to people and individuals we have an unlimited number of votes and we can elect to give them to anyone or anything we like. We are essentially giving people, things, or activities power (or votes) by spending time with them and listening to them or engaging them. It’s this power that I’m getting that compels us to be influenced. If your idol is working out every morning and has a particular thinking routine and they explain that in a blog post, you would feel more compelled to do that rather than listening to someone who you think is a total loser.

I hope that clears that up. 😃