Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Why do some things catch on? Not luck, not budget — six design choices, measured.
- Author
- Jonah Berger
- Published
- 2013, Simon & Schuster
- Framework
- STEPPS
- Base
- His Wharton research program
Forms & parts of speech
What the book says
Contagious argues word of mouth is engineerable because sharing has stable causes. STEPPS names them: Social currency (we share what makes us look good), Triggers (top of mind, tip of tongue), Emotion (high-arousal feelings move the share button), Public (visible behavior copies itself), Practical value (useful news travels), and Stories (facts ride inside narratives). The evidence runs from his New York Times most-emailed studies to Blendtec's blenders and the $100 Philly cheesesteak.
The ideas people quote
The most-emailed analysis — awe and anger share, sadness doesn't (arousal is the axis); the trigger logic of 'Friday' by Rebecca Black and Kit Kat's coffee pairing; Hotmail's signature line and the Movember mustache as Public made visible; and the book's quiet anti-budget thesis — Blendtec spent fifty dollars on its first viral videos.
How to read it now
Read it as the design checklist between 'we made something good' and 'people talk about it.' It pairs naturally with Cialdini (why people comply) and Kahneman (how they decide) as the why-they-share leg of the stool. The trap it warns against has only grown — chasing virality as a goal instead of designing shareability into something worth sharing.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonyms
Origin & history
Grew from Berger's Wharton research program — including the Journal of Marketing Research papers analyzing the New York Times most-emailed list — and a decade of word-of-mouth experiments. Simon & Schuster published it March 2013; it won the AMA's Berry Prize for best marketing book.
Etymology: source.
Usage trends
Search interest for this term over the last five years:
Common questions
- Who wrote Contagious?
- Jonah Berger, Wharton marketing professor, published 2013 — based on his research into why content and products spread.
- What is STEPPS?
- Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value, Stories — the book's six drivers of word of mouth.
- What did the research find about emotion?
- High-arousal emotions (awe, anger, excitement) drive sharing. Low-arousal ones (sadness, contentment) suppress it.
Related tools & calculators
Resources & people to follow
- bookContagious — Jonah Berger (the subject)
- bookMade to Stick — Heath & Heath (its older sibling)
- referenceJonahBerger.com — the research papers
Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.
Related training
- moduleContent marketing
Disciplines
Areas of marketing where contagious: why things catch on is a core concern: