Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about why people do things because they're popular,

how Star Wars style holograms are becoming a reality, how you can avoid four productivity pitfalls and assess how productive you actually are.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

Have you noticed all your friends suddenly watching Game of Thrones lately?

Or your friends who never cared about sports are now showing up to parties wearing t-shirts of your favorite team

now that they're in the playoffs?

Or everybody's listening to Lizzo because suddenly people have discovered her even though you were listening to her from the very beginning.

What's a Lizzo? Lizzo is one of the greatest pop stars ever. Check it out.

Okay.

I've been listening to her album non-stop since it came out.

I'll take your word for it.

Well, there's a psychological phenomenon

you can thank for this, and it's literally called the bandwagon effect.

It's why people do things because they're popular and understanding it can help you avoid doing stupid things just because everyone else is.

So let's get into it. The bandwagon effect has its roots in politics.

The idiom actually comes from the 1848 U.S. presidential election,

when people literally jumped on a bandwagon to parade around the town

in support of the Whig Party's presidential candidate Zachary Taylor.

These days, the phrase usually refers to someone who supports the popular political candidate, regardless of their own beliefs.

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