More Holiday Marketing Tricks: Helping You Feel Like Part of the Crowd

In this episode of Motley Fool Answers, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp are back with more warnings about the mind games that advertisers and retailers play on us -- and they play with extra intensity during this most profitable time of the year. Not that they're suggesting you become a Miser -- Heat or otherwise -- but they do want you to know precisely how you're being manipulated to open your wallet.

In this segment, they discuss the phenomenon of social proof: There's a common and deep-seated desire to feel like we fit in. And that means sellers can induce us to buy by offering us ways to make our purchases feel like they are validated by "the group."

A full transcript follows the video.

Source: Fool.com