In Invisible Influence, the New York Times bestselling author of
Contagious explores the subtle influences that affect the decisions we
make--from what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat.
"Jonah Berger has done it again: written a fascinating book that brims
with ideas and tools for how to think about the world." --Charles
Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
If you're 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 people's 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 we're told it
is supported by Democrats versus Republicans (even though the policy is
the same). But social influence doesn't 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 don't want to look
like a soccer mom.
By understanding how social influence works, we can decide when to
resist and when to embrace it--and learn how we can use this knowledge
to exercise more control over our own behavior. In Invisible
Influence, Jonah Berger "is 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 action"
(Publishers Weekly).
