Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses police violence and gang violence.

The bandwagon effect is a social phenomenon in which people adopt certain behaviors, mannerisms, and ideologies primarily because they are popular with other people. In “Cell One,” almost all characters engage in this conformist mode of behavior, often to the detriment of larger society. As such, Adichie uses the dangers of the bandwagon effect as a stark warning to readers. The limits between safe and dangerous forms of collective thinking are blurred, with tragic consequences for individuals such as Nnamabia, who ignorantly emulates popular behaviors.

Nnamabia’s inclination toward the bandwagon effect is the most obvious of all the characters, since he is the protagonist and observed the most closely by the narrator. “Cell One’s” initial robbery episode lays out the predisposition very clearly, with the narrator asserting that he stole the jewelry “because other sons of professors were doing it” (Paragraph 6). This character trait is taken to extreme lengths during the cult craze on campus when Nnamabia’s involvement cannot be confirmed but is highly suspected by his family. Adichie writes, “[c]ult boys were popular, and Nnamabia was very popular.