The Bad Apple Effect

Have you ever been called a bad apple? Lets hope not. The bad apple effect refers to “the idea that one person who breaks the rules can inspire other people to break the rules also.” In many ways, this effect is similar to that of a social loafer; one individual’s negative actions can cause others in the group to behave in the same way. Generally, people in groups will avoid bad behavior for fear of rejection or creating deviance among their group. However, once one member has digressed from the group norm, it apparently is a lot easier for subsequent members to do so as well.

An informative publication put out by Highland Business Research brings insight about bad apples into the realm of tourism. The company conducts research about tourist destinations and customer satisfaction. As a disinterested third party, the researchers have heard numerous frank stories about the horrors of poor travel hosts, and as they say, they really “get to see just how strong the emotional reaction is to the negative experience.” The research is therefore a good exploration of the effects of “bad apple” tourism locales upon individuals.

After giving a few customer testimonials about negative customer service experiences, the article ties in the bad apple phenomenon by reminding other marketers and tourism businesses that one bad apple can spread the customer’s negative reaction and direct it towards subsequent endeavors. Even if the second hotel a family stays in has nothing to do whatsoever with the first, if the first hotel was infested with bugs, it is likely that this negative experience will serve as a bad apple and soil the reputation of the second hotel, in the same way that poor behavior might inspire similar reactions in others. Also, the negative behaviors of the inflicted tourist have the capability of spreading to other customers in the same locations. Seeing another hotel guest in the lobby complaining about funny smells and carpet lint may inspire observers to begin inspecting their surroundings carefully for such traits as well. Bad customer experiences are therefore a larger problem for a tourist industry that simply one business losing one customer.

One last appealing article describes how the bad apple effect may be incorrectly applied. In the specific case detailed, prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, the author states that social psychologists have been frequently analyzing the event with the belief that evil tendencies were rooted only in individuals, so the problem was a classic instance of the bad apple effect (the effects of those evil individuals spreading). However, he suggests that psychologists should first examine the situational aspects that produced the first bad behaviors. What if rather than being a few bad apples, the first individuals were good apples in a bad barrel?

“Beware of bad apples- are other businesses spoiling your customer’s experience?”

http://blog.highlandbusinessresearch.com/2008/09/18/beware-of-bad-apples-are-other-businesses-spoiling-your-customers-experience/>

Shermer, Michael. “Bad Apples and Bad Barrels: Lessons in Evil from Stanford to Abu Ghraib.”<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bad-apples-and-bad-barrels

Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social psychology and human nature. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.