In Invisible Influence, the New York Times bestselling author of Contagious explores the subtle influences that affect the decisions we makeâfrom what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat.
âJonah Berger has done it again: written a fascinating book that brims with ideas and tools for how to think about the world.â âCharles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
If youâre like most people, you think your individual tastes and opinions drive your choices and behaviors. You wear a certain jacket because you liked how it looked. You picked a particular career because you found it interesting. The notion that our choices are driven by our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong.
Without our realizing it, other peopleâs behavior has a huge influence on everything we do at every moment of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous. Even strangers have an impact on our judgments and decisions: our attitudes toward a welfare policy shift if weâre told it is supported by Democrats versus Republicans (even though the policy is the same). But social influence doesnât just lead us to do the same things as others. In some cases we imitate others around us. But in other cases we avoid particular choices or behaviors because other people are doing them. We stop listening to a band because they go mainstream. We skip buying the minivan because we donât want to look like a soccer mom.
By understanding how social influence works, we can decide when to resist and when to embrace itâand learn how we can use this knowledge to exercise more control over our own behavior. In Invisible Influence, Jonah Berger âis consistently entertaining, applying science to real life in surprising ways and explaining research through narrative. His book fascinates because it opens up the moving parts of a mysterious machine, allowing readers to watch them in actionâ (Publishers Weekly).