

If you've wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. Contagious combines research with powerful stories. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.

In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. He's studied why New York Times articles make the paper's own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. Wharton professor Jonah Berger draws on his research to explain the six steps that make products or ideas contagious.
