When there is a group of close friends doing similar, there is more sense of the, "win together, fail together" mentality as well as a bit of peer pressure and FOMO.
I think many people don't have the courage to invest, or better yet, to take responsibility for their action. If there's a group of friends, half of which have already invested, it's easier for the rest to join in as they think "win together, fail together" as you said. This has a double meaning. 1. If the others are also in, you don't look stupid if you lose. 2. If you lose, you can partly blame the others for your failure. Looks strange but it's true. People are reticent because they want some kind of proof first.
This is a very big point most people don't realise. People aren't just scared of losing, they are scared of looking like losers.
Do you remember when Steem dropped under $1? How many people bought Steem at $0.75 - S0.9 as compared to $4 or even $8, looked like a good investment, a golden opportunity. I remember the posts saying I bought x Steem and powered up, one after another. They were not so quick to admit how much they have lost though. There were a few honest posts, but not many. That was similar.
The first I bought was around 1.80 on the way up - and I held all the way down - My account was 1/8th the size it is now and was worth 4 times as much :)
😁 oooops