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The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind

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“Jonah Berger is one of those rare thinkers who blends research-based insights with immensely practical guidance. I am grateful to be one of the many who have learned from this master teacher.” —Jim Collins, author Good to Great, coauthor Built to Last

From the author of New York Times bestsellers Contagious and Invisible Influence comes a revolutionary approach to changing anyone’s mind.

Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers’ minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way?

This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it’s not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it’s about being a catalyst. Catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers to change. Instead of asking, “How could I change someone’s mind?” they ask a different question: “Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?”

The Catalyst identifies the key barriers to change and how to mitigate them. You’ll learn how catalysts change minds in the toughest of situations: how hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up and how marketers get new products to catch on, how leaders transform organizational culture and how activists ignite social movements, how substance abuse counselors get addicts to realize they have a problem, and how political canvassers change deeply rooted political beliefs.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to catalyze change. It provides a powerful way of thinking and a range of techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you’re trying to change one person, transform an organization, or shift the way an entire industry does business, this book will teach you how to become a catalyst.

ISBN-13: 9781982108601

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 03-10-2020

Pages: 288

Product Dimensions: 5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and internationally bestselling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. He’s a world-renowned expert on social influence, word of mouth, and why products, ideas, and behaviors catch on and has published over 50 papers in top-tier academic journals. He has consulted for a range of Fortune 500 companies, keynoted hundreds of events, and popular accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. His research has also been featured in the New York Times Magazine’s “Year in Ideas.”

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Getting mobsters to turn themselves in … Why pushing doesn't work … A different approach to change … Finding the parking brakes … Catalysts REDUCE roadblocks.

1 Reactance 15

Why people eat detergent … When warnings become recommendations … Might choice make you live longer? … Encouraging people to persuade themselves … When smokers tell people not to smoke … How hostage negotiators get people to come out with their hands up … When pushed, people push back.

Case Study: How to Change an Extremist's Mind 51

2 Endowment 61

When consumers like less reliability … Of mugs and men … Why sellers value things more than buyers … Why losses loom larger than gains … When smaller injuries hurt more … Good is the enemy of great … Why a famous explorer burned his ships … Doing nothing feels costless, but it isn't.

Case Study: How to Change a Nation's Opinion 84

3 Distance 89

What would make people less prejudiced … Why correcting false information backfires … Why political advertising is a waste of money, and when it isn't … When it's better to ask for less … Finding an unsticking point … Too far from their backyard, people tend to disregard.

Case Study: How to Change a Voter's Mind 125

4 Uncertainty 133

Changing ingrained behavior … Quantifying the uncertainty tax … How to make money by giving things away for free … Why online retailers are opening physical stores … What dog shelters have in common with REI … Easier to try, more likely to buy.

Case Study: How to Change the Boss's Mind 170

5 Corroborating Evidence 177

Getting heroin addicts to quit … Why changing minds is like trying to tip a seesaw … How to solve the translation problem … When people check to see if they have a tail … Which sources are most impactful? … When to concentrate scare resources and when to spread them out … Some things need more proof.

Case Study: How to Change Consumer Behavior 208

Epilogue 215

When Israelis and Palestinians hold hands … Find the root … How to REDUCE roadblocks

Acknowledgments 231

Appendix: Active Listening 233

Appendix: Applying Freemium 237

Appendix: Force Field Analysis 239

Notes 243

Index 259