I suspect this has about as much empirical backing as global warming.
I suspect this has about as much empirical backing as global warming.
"Bandwagon" behavior was well-known even before modern psychology began to measure such phenomena. The ancient Romans elected their annual officials by reporting to the polling place in the Campus Martius and gathering in roped-off areas reserved for each ancient tribe (there were three): the roping-off (praecinctus) gave us our word for "precincts", although they were more like political wards.
Immediately before and during balloting, people would visit across the ropes and talk about the candidates and watch their progress as the ballots were tallied through the tribes and smaller subgroups (I should imagine they were voting by clans and families, though I don't know that). Thus it became political strategy to try to obtain support in the first groups to be polled, in order to sway those voting later. And yes, bribery was not uncommon in the later Republic. That's the essential bandwagon.