Author Guide · Marketing & Behavioural Science
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When Blendtec put an iPhone in one of its blenders and posted the video online, millions of people shared it, and the company’s sales rose by 700 percent. Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, uses cases like that one to ask why some things catch on and others do not. His answers come from his own research: six months of New York Times articles analysed for what readers passed on, studies of baby names and word choice, and more than 80 papers in academic journals. He then writes them up for a general reader, each book built around a short framework. This guide covers his four key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 key books · 2013–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Jonah Berger has written four books: Contagious (2013), Invisible Influence (2016), The Catalyst (2020) and Magic Words (2023). Start with Contagious, the book that introduced his STEPPS framework for why things spread; each later book takes one part of the same question further, from social influence to changing minds to the words we choose.
Where to Start with Jonah Berger
If you want to know why things go viral
→ Contagious (2013) — the six STEPPS principles.
If you want to persuade someone who resists
→ The Catalyst (2020) — the five barriers to change.
If you want something you can use in your next conversation
→ Magic Words (2023) — six kinds of words that change how people respond.
4 Jonah Berger Books, in Order
Contagious
Berger argues that word of mouth, not luck or advertising alone, decides what catches on, and that it follows six principles he calls STEPPS: Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value and Stories. Examples include a bar hidden behind a phone booth in a hot-dog restaurant and the Blendtec blender videos. Published by Simon & Schuster in March 2013, it grew out of his Wharton course and became a New York Times bestseller, translated into more than 35 languages; it also won the American Marketing Association’s Berry Book Prize.
Invisible Influence
A book about how other people shape our choices without our noticing. Berger shows imitation and the wish to be different working together, with examples from baby-name trends, group decisions at work and racial achievement gaps, and the idea that people like things that are “moderately similar”. Published by Simon & Schuster in June 2016, it spent more than three months on the New York Times bestseller list.
The Catalyst
Instead of pushing harder, Berger argues, people who change minds remove the barriers in the way. He names five, REDUCE: Reactance, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty and Corroborating evidence. The cases include a hostage negotiator, a public health official helping teenagers stop smoking and an activist who won conservative voters’ support for transgender rights.
Magic Words
Published by Harper Business in March 2023, this is a book about word choice, drawing on Berger’s research with language-analysis tools. It groups the evidence into six kinds of words: identity and agency, confidence, questions, concreteness, emotion and similarity. Examples include children who helped about 30 percent more when asked to be “helpers” rather than to “help”, and asking “what could we do?” instead of “what should we do?”.
In What Order to Read Jonah Berger
The four books stand alone and none needs the others, but publication order works well. Contagious asks why ideas spread between people, Invisible Influence asks how those people shape us in return, The Catalyst turns to changing one person’s mind, and Magic Words narrows it down to single words.
If you only read one, choose by the problem you have: spreading a product or message (Contagious), getting someone to change (The Catalyst), or saying things better in everyday work (Magic Words).
A reading path
1. Contagious (2013)
2. Invisible Influence (2016)
3. The Catalyst (2020)
4. Magic Words (2023)
The years · 1981–2023
Quick facts about Jonah Berger
- Known for
- Jonah Berger is known for research on word of mouth and why products and ideas catch on, summed up in the STEPPS framework of Contagious.
- 1981
- Born in Washington, D.C.
- 2007
- PhD in marketing, Stanford
- 2013
- Contagious
- 2023
- Magic Words
- Born
- c. 1981, Washington, D.C.; grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland
- Education
- BA in Human Judgment and Decision Making, Stanford (2002); PhD in marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business (2007)
- Works
- Professor of marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Research
- More than 80 academic articles, including “What Makes Online Content Viral?” with Katy Milkman (2012)
- Honours
- Wharton Iron Professor Award; early career awards from the Association for Consumer Research and the Society for Consumer Psychology
- Reach
- Books translated into more than 35 languages, with millions of copies in print
The red mark is 2013: Contagious, the book that introduced his STEPPS framework.
How Jonah Berger Writes: Research Turned into Frameworks
Each book starts from Berger’s own academic work. Contagious came out of a Wharton course he taught and a study, with Katy Milkman, of which New York Times articles readers shared; later books draw on his studies of social influence and, in Magic Words, on computer analysis of large amounts of text.
He organises each book around a memorable acronym: STEPPS in Contagious, REDUCE in The Catalyst, six kinds of words in Magic Words. Every chapter takes one principle, opens with a story (a hidden bar, a hostage negotiation, a blender video), explains the research behind it and ends with what a reader can do with it.
The tone is plain and practical, written for marketers, managers and general readers rather than other academics. Reviewers have praised the usefulness and, in the case of Magic Words, noted that some of the advice pulls in different directions.
Frequently asked questions about Jonah Berger’s books
How many books has Jonah Berger written?
Four: Contagious (2013), Invisible Influence (2016), The Catalyst (2020) and Magic Words (2023). He has also published more than 80 academic articles.
What are Jonah Berger’s books in order?
Contagious: Why Things Catch On (2013), Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior (2016), The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind (2020) and Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way (2023).
Where should I start with Jonah Berger?
With Contagious, his first book, which sets out the STEPPS framework the later books build on. If your aim is to persuade one person rather than reach many, start with The Catalyst.
What is Jonah Berger’s most famous book?
Contagious: Why Things Catch On (2013). It became a New York Times bestseller, has been translated into more than 35 languages and won the American Marketing Association’s Berry Book Prize.
What does STEPPS stand for in Contagious?
Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value and Stories: the six principles Berger says make people talk about and share products and ideas.
What is the REDUCE framework in The Catalyst?
The five barriers that stop people changing their minds: Reactance, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty and Corroborating evidence. Berger’s argument is that removing these barriers works better than pushing harder.
What are the six types of words in Magic Words?
Words that activate identity and agency, convey confidence, ask questions, use concreteness, employ emotion and harness similarity (and difference). A small example: asking children to be “helpers” rather than to “help”.
Who is Jonah Berger?
An American marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a BA and a PhD from Stanford. He studies word of mouth, social influence and language, and advises companies on how ideas and products spread.
Did Jonah Berger work with Katy Milkman?
Yes. Their 2012 paper “What Makes Online Content Viral?”, in the Journal of Marketing Research, studied which New York Times articles readers shared, and its findings feed into Contagious.
Footnotes
- Jonah Berger — Wikipedia
- About Jonah Berger — jonahberger.com
- Q&A with Jonah Berger — Penn Today, 2013
- Penn prof explores science of going viral — The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2013
- Invisible Influence — Publishers Weekly, 2016
- Magic Words — Kirkus Reviews, 2023
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“If something is top of mind, it’s going to be tip of tongue.”
— Jonah Berger, interview with Penn Today (2013)
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