Book 2, Post 2

Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior 

by Jonah Berger

As I mentioned in my first post, the reason why I chose this book was the title as it piqued my interest. However, what ultimately made me go with this book was the short description of it given in the Yes! Magazine article. The articles description was really interesting and put into perspective the behavioral concepts that the book would be about.

Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior by Jonah Berger was a quick read and easy to understand. The book had a total of five chapters that were separated by different topics. As a whole, Berger seeks to explore how social influences affect our behavior, decisions, and actions. He states that our behavior is often influenced by social cues, like the behavior of those around us or the cultural norms of our environment. As a result, our social interactions are constantly shaping who we are and what we do. Something that I found really interesting as I kept reading was that in some cases we often imitate those around us, but in other instances we knowingly avoid specific choices or behaviors because we see others doing them. When you think about it this makes perfect sense, as many times we see people avoid certain decisions in order to “break a cycle”, or be a better person. 

There are many interesting examples given in the book. One of them has to do with siblings and how they try to differentiate themselves. Did you know that youngest children are most likely to be top athletes? I did not!, in his research, Berger found that 75% of top athletes have at least one older sibling. Another example that I found fascinating was the influence of hurricanes and baby names. After hurricane Katrina, there was a spike in baby names starting with the letter “K”. 

When I started the book I was hoping to get a better understanding on how and why we as people make certain decisions. After finishing the book I feel like overall, I did get a better understanding of the invisible influences looming around us. Berger is kind enough to offer advice on how to become more aware of these hidden forces and how we can make better decisions as a result.