Psychologists devote a lot of time to studying the “bandwagon effect” — the tendency of people to adopt a certain behaviour or style simply because everyone else is doing it. Whether it’s fomo or peer pressure or something else, they feel compelled to climb aboard and give it a go.
Sometimes it can be positive, such as encouraging the playing of sport via pickleball, currently enjoying a London moment. At other times it can be questionable, if not downright harmful. One such in the latter category, at the opposite end of the spectrum from hitting a plastic ball with a paddle, is nuclear energy.
