Invisible Influence

The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

By: Jonah Berger

Narrated by: Keith Nobbs

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).

thoughtful insight

this book provides ideas on how the world around you affects your habits. .
hj

Awesome principles for any leader.

Well narrated. Well written. Very interesting studies and stories. Very helpful for leaders. Jonah Berger delivers. This was a good book but Jonahs book, "Contagious " is more groundbreaking!

Disappointing and lightweight

I have enjoyed Berger's other books but found this to be surprisingly lightweight. It covers very little ground and spends way too much time on anecdotes and way to little on the underlying science. If you are looking for a good understanding of how we influence each other, and ourselves through our own biases, there are plenty of better works to choose from.

Great research, but more questions unanswered

The author presented a good argument for the utility of social influence and how different entities can take advantage of the knowledge. It's fascinating how we all have both the need to be a part of a community in one instance and to differentiate in another. I think this is a dichotomy.

While the research has been well enumerated, I wonder if the same research findings can be leveraged by policy makers to help various groups to assimilate into acceptable societal norms without the associated bias of political correctness.

I recommend this book for general information. it's also easy to follow. The author does a good job of keeping technical jargon to a minimum.

Great book

This book is a great way to understand how our society shapes our lives, and how we can use it to motivate us.

The only problem I had was with the voice reading it. While it was a clear and well enunciated reading, I found myself zoning out the voice often.