Cialdini raamat
likely to be looking for social evidence, too. Because we all prefer to appear poised
and unflustered among others, we are likely to search for that evidence placidly,
with brief, camouflaged glances at those around us. Therefore everyone is likely to
see everyone else looking unruffled and failing to act. As a result, and by the prin-
ciple of social proof, the event will be roundly interpreted as a nonemergency. This,
according to Latane and Darley (1968b) is the state of pluralistic ignorance "in
which each person decided that since nobody is concerned, nothing is wrong.
Meanwhile, the danger may be mounting to the point where a single individual,
uninfluenced by the seeming calm of others, would react."s
sThe potentially tragic consequences of the pluralistic ignorance phenomenon are starkly illustrated
in a UPI news release from Chicago:
annaabi.ee 
