Jonah Berger
Born	Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Stanford University Stanford Graduate School of Business
Occupations	Writer professor [1]
Known for	Contagious: Why Things Catch On The Catalyst: How To Change Anyone's Mind Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior
Website	http://jonahberger.com/

Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an author, and a viral marketer.^[2] He has published over 50 articles in academic journals and has written for The New York Times,^[3][4] The Wall Street Journal,^[5] and Harvard Business Review.^[6][7] More than a million copies of his books Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, and The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind^[8] are in print in over 35 countries.

Berger often keynotes major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions and consults for organizations like Apple Inc., Google,^[8] Nike, Amazon, GE, 3M, and the Gates Foundation.^[9]

Biography

Berger grew up in Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, Maryland, and attended the magnet program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.^[10] He attended Stanford University and earned a B.A. in Human Judgment and Decision Making in 2002 and a Ph.D. in marketing from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2007.^[11] Berger writes about psychology, marketing, social influence, and virality as a LinkedIn influencer.^[12]

Publications

Books

• Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Simon & Schuster, 2013
  • Amazon Best book of 2013^[13]
  • Audible Best Audiobook of 2013 ^[14]
• Invisible Influence: The Hidden Factors that Shape Behavior, Simon & Schuster, 2016
• The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind (2020)
• Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way (2023)

Selected articles

• Berger, Jonah and Grant Packard (2018), “Are Atypical Things More Popular?” Psychological Science, 29(7), 1178–1184.
• Packard, Grant and Jonah Berger (2017), “How Language Shapes Word of Mouth’s Impact,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54(4), 572–588.
• Akpinar, Ezgi and Jonah Berger (2015), “Drivers of Cultural Evolution: The Case of Sensory Metaphors,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109 (1), 20–34.
• Berger, Jonah (2014) “Word-of-Mouth and Interpersonal Communication: A Review and Directions for Future Research” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(4), 586–607.
• Berger, Jonah and Katy Milkman (2012), “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (2), 192–205.
• Berger, Jonah and Raghuram Iyengar (2013), “Communication Channels and Word of Mouth: How the Medium Shapes the Message,” Journal of Consumer Research, October.
• Zoey Chen and Jonah Berger (2013), “When, Why, and How Controversy Causes Conversation,” Journal of Consumer Research, October.
• Berger, Jonah, Eric Bradlow, Alex Braunstein, and Yao Zhang (2012), “From Karen to Katie: Using Baby names to Study Cultural Evolution” Psychological Science, 23 (10), 1067–1073.
• Sela, Aner and Jonah Berger (2012), “Decision Quicksand: How Trivial Choice Suck Us In” Journal of Consumer Research, 39(2), 360–370.
• Berger, Jonah and Eric Schwartz (2011), “What Drives Immediate and Ongoing Word of Mouth?” Journal of Marketing Research, October, 869–880.
• Berger, Jonah and Devin Pope (2011), “Can Losing Lead to Winning?” Management Science, 57(5), 817–827.
• Berger, Jonah, Alan T. Sorensen, and Scott J. Rasmussen (2010), “Positive Effects of Negative Publicity: When Negative Reviews Increase Sales,” Marketing Science, 29(5), 815–827.
• Berger, Jonah and Gael Le Mens (2009), “How Adoption Speed Affects the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 8146–8150.
• Berger, Jonah, Marc Meredith, and S. Christian Wheeler (2008), “Contextual Priming: Where People Vote Affects How They Vote,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (26), 8846–8849.
• Berger, Jonah and Gráinne M. Fitzsimons (2008), “Dogs on the Street, Pumas on Your Feet: How Cues in the Environment Influence Product Evaluation and Choice,” Journal of Marketing Research, 45(1), 1–14.
• Berger, Jonah and Chip Heath (2007), “Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity-Signaling and Product Domains,” Journal of Consumer Research, 34(2), 121–134.

Awards

• The American Marketing Association (AMA) Top 5 Most Productive Researchers in Marketing^[15]
• The Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Early Career Award for Contribution to Consumer Research^[16]
• The Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Consumer Psychology^[17]
• The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Iron Professor Award for Awesome Faculty Research^[18]
• The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania MBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award, 2011^[19]
• New York Times, Year in Ideas^[20]