Herd July 22, 2008 How to Change Mass Behaviour By Harnessing Our True Nature (John Wiley & Sons, $21.86)
How does text messaging become so popular? What about social phenomena like graffiti? Herd, by marketing guru Mark Earls, gives a counter-intuitive answer, contending that mass behavior is caused primarily not by extra-human or traumatic events – rather, by other people.
Advancing his outlook on the matter, Earls argues that sensitivity to social influence can be found in human nature. Rejecting the notion that everything constitutes a social construct, he makes special mention of work done by Steven Pinker, the MIT evolutionary psychologist who has recently gained much attention for his assault on the notion that we're all simply products of our environment. Earl cites evidence from the likes of Pinker to makes a powerful case that responding to other people constitutes a basic feature of being human.
While you may not agree with the thesis of Herd, it's a thought-provoking read that addresses a question central to advertising and marketing: How do you create long-term change in consumer behavior?
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