In Organizational Alpha, investment manager Ben Carlson discourses on the conundrum with peer pressure. He consults Robert Cialdini’s work (see Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) on the common themes that customarily motivate we human’s recognized endeavors to influence one another:

Psychologist Robert Cialdini has shown that one of the main filters we use to make decisions is by looking at the decisions of others. Social proof is the idea that it feels more comfortable to go along with the crowd when making tough decisions on our own because we look at what others are doing in times of uncertainty. Investors with lots of money at stake tend to feel that they have to use “sophisticated” investment strategies that cost a lot of money in order to keep up with their peers.