Made to Stick

In 1994, George Loewenstein: George Loewenstein, “The Psychology of
Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation,” Psychological Bulletin 116
(1994): 75–98. This is a brilliant article that reviews decades of psychological
research.
91
Heretofore, television has done: The Roone Arledge story is from his autobi-
ography,  Roone: A Memoir (New York: HarperCollins, 2003). The quote
from the memo is on page 32.
93
In the rubble of Tokyo: The Sony history is from John Nathan, Sony: The
Private Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
96
“If people like curiosity”: Loewenstein, “Psychology of Curiosity,” 86.
3. Concrete
99
“Business Buzzword Generator”: The buzzword generator was invented by 
W. Davis Folsom at the University of South Carolina–Aiken. See http://
highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072537892/student_view0/business_jargon
_exercise.html.
100 Concreteness helps us avoid these problems: The advantages of concrete
ideas show up across psychology. Concrete ideas are more memorable. Per-
haps the most interesting summary of this evidence is from a book by David
Rubin, a cognitive psychologist at Duke University who has spent years trying
to understand how aspects of culture—epic sagas, ballads, and children’s
rhymes—propagate from person to person and generation to generation. His
book Memory in Oral Traditions is a masterful summary of work across the
humanities and psychology. Concrete elements are the most likely to survive
transmission from one person to another because they are the easiest to un-
derstand and remember. See David C. Rubin, Memory in Oral Traditions:
The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-Out Rhymes (Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Concrete ideas are also more understandable. In education research,
Mark Sadoski, Ernest Goetz, and colleagues have published a number of 
interesting papers illustrating that concrete ideas are more understandable,
memorable, and, as a side benefit, more interesting. See Mark Sadoski, Ern-
est T. Goetz, and Maximo Rodriguez, “Engaging Texts: Effects of Concrete-
ness on Comprehensibility, Interest, and Recall in Four Text Types,” Journal
of Educational Psychology 92 (2000): 85–95.
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107 Yale researcher Eric Havelock: E. A. Havelock, Preface to Plato (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963).
107 Two professors from Georgia State University: Carol W. Springer and 
A. Faye Borthick, “Business Simulation to Stage Critical Thinking in Intro-
ductory Accounting: Rationale, Design, and Implementation,” Issues in Ac-
counting Education 19 (2004): 277–303.
111 Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes: The description of Jane Elliott’s antiprejudice simu-
lation is taken from a PBS Frontline documentary, “A Class Divided.” It’s one
of the most frequently requested programs in the station’s history, winning an
Emmy for Outstanding Informational, Cultural, or Historical Programming
in 1985. It can be seen on the Web at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
shows/divided/etc/view.html.
112 Studies conducted ten and twenty years later: Phil Zimbardo, Psychology
and Life, 12th ed. (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1985), 634.
114 A researcher named Beth Bechky: B. A. Bechky, “Crossing Occupational
Boundaries: Communication and Learning on a Production Floor,” Ph.D.
diss., Stanford University, 1999.
116 The 727 must seat 131 passengers: Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built to
Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York: HarperBusiness,
1994), 93.
116 The Ferraris Go to Disney World: The Stone-Yamashita work with HP is
based on Victoria Chang and Chip Heath, “Stone-Yamashita and PBS: A
Case at the Graduate School of Business,” Stanford University Graduate
School of Business case study SM119 (2004).
120 Kaplan and Go Computers: This example is from a great book by Jerry Kap-
lan: Start-Up: A Silicon Valley Adventure (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995).
It’s one of the best accounts we’ve read about the day-to-day uncertainty and
struggle of being an entrepreneur and building a company. And it’s very
funny.
121 My audience seemed tense: Ibid., 25–26.
122 Their investment valued: Kaplan’s company, later named Go Computers,
ultimately failed because the technology of its time wasn’t sufficient to sup-
port pen-based computers. Nonetheless, the idea of pen-based computing
was so sticky—the “pocketable radio” of its generation—that several other
firms in addition to Kaplan’s arose and attracted venture capital dollars (and
skilled engineering talent) to pursue the technology.
124 Diarrhea is one of the leading killers: Message 1 of the Oral Rehydration
Therapy Clinic is from PSI, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization that
266
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is doing innovative work on health for low-income populations. See www
.psi.org/our_programs/products/ors.html.
125 “Do you know”: Message 2 of the Oral Rehydration Therapy Clinic is by
James Grant, who, during his time at UNICEF, made changes that have
been credited with saving the lives of more than 25 million children. Vacci-
nation rates increased, for example, from 20 percent to 80 percent. This re-
markable story is told in David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social
Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2004). See page 248 for the quote.
128 “Saddleback Sam” Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Church (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1995): 169. Warren’s book explains the organizing
principles of one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the country.
4. Credible
131 “simply didn’t have the demeanor”: Daniel Q. Haney, “News That Ulcers
Are Caused by Bacteria Travels Slowly to MDs,” Buffalo News, February 11,
1996.
132 “It tasted like swamp water”: Manveet Kaur, “Doctor Who Discovered
‘Ulcer Bugs,’ ” New Straits Times, August 13, 2002, 6.
132 an important theme in modern medicine: Laura Beil, “A New Look at Old
Ills: Research Finds Some Chronic Diseases May Be Infectious,” The Record
(Northern New Jersey), March 24, 1997.
133 But if we’re skeptical about: Naturally sticky ideas are a great source of in-
sight about the process of persuasion, and researchers who study persuasion
in psychology would benefit from studying them. Traditional studies of per-
suasion in psychology have sidestepped the issue of credibility by creating a
bunch of arguments, having people rate them for credibility, then using the
ones that are rated as having high or low credibility. With the exception of a
number of studies on the impact of authority, researchers have avoided trying
to understand what makes messages credible. Yet rumors and urban legends
regularly evolve features that ascribe credibility to bizarre claims. The
“testable credentials” idea that we discuss in the chapter, for example, has
been a feature of dozens of urban legends, yet it has not been discussed by the
research literature on persuasion.
133 Around 1999, an e-mail message: The flesh-eating banana legend is dis-
cussed at www.snopes.com/medical/disease/bananas.asp.
135 Pam Laffin, the Antiauthority: The story of Pam Laffin is described in Bella
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English, “Sharing a Life Gone Up in Smoke,” Boston Globe, September 20,
1998.
135 “I started smoking to look older”: From the website of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/christy/myth1.htm.
136 The Doe Fund sent a driver: We thank Spencer Robertson for this example.
138 “acquire a good deal”: Jan Harold Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: