And although when people were fascinated by something, it did generate immediate word of mouth, these conversations were not ongoing, but instead petered out.

What is it that drives people to continue to talk about certain things more than others? Berger discusses how at first, he thought perhaps people preferred to talk about thing that were just more, well, interesting. Plus, people just inherently love to share their own preferences, opinions, and experiences. Sharing like this makes us feel good about ourselves, and contributes to a sense of participation in, and of belonging to a community. We tell our friend about the cool new restaurant that opened up downtown.

We forward that quirky news item in an email. As naturally social animals, we enjoy being perceived as witty, informed and entertaining, and so we often transact in social currency. Social currency is similar in that it represents knowledge that has value and is shared within social groups. In financial markets, currencies represents a store of value, and a medium of exchange. Berger devotes a chapter to each category he has identified. STEPPS stands for: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories. I also enjoyed how Berger explained the research process at a high level and the evolution of his thinking as the ideas crystallized. Berger lays out his framework using a helpful acronym, “STEPPS,” to assist readers in recalling the basic ideas. In general, I found the book to be well-organized, with clear explanations, and Berger adds a lot of good applied examples to demonstrate the concepts. These attributes, to varying degrees, are what make something contagious. In order for something to become popular and spread effectively, especially socially or through word of mouth, people have to want to share it, and as it turns out there are a handful of common attributes that highly popular things have in common that induce people to share them with others. The results of his work can be distilled into a few core ideas, which he explores in a captivating book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.” Based on this analysis, Berger has identified the critical factors that drive the success and popularity of things that tend to catch on in our society. Jonah Berger, who teaches marketing at Wharton, has thought about this question, and has conducted a lot of of research exploring it, in areas ranging from car purchases to YouTube videos. Why do some ideas fail to achieve widespread acceptance despite being high quality, of good value, and endowed with hefty advertising budgets? What exactly are the shared intangibles that account for the runaway success of, say, a blog post that goes viral, or of Apple’s ubiquitous products? Anyone involved in business has observed that certain products, services or ideas seem to catch on and become wildly popular.

Contagious jonah berger review