Precedent Signals

What it is

Michael Morris describes, in Tribal, how groups tie present activities to an earlier past so that they read as traditional and meaningful, and how a new custom can be introduced this way. Two qualities do the work: how old the precedent seems, and how consistent it is with the present.

In effect

In the article on why Singles’ Day works, each year's event points back to the years before it, so that a recent shopping date reads as part of a series.

What it does not say

It is an account of how customs gain weight. It does not say that every repeated event becomes a tradition, or measure how much of an event's pull comes from its history.

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