33 pages • 1 hour read
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
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Index of Terms
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BetaChapter 5-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Emotional”
This chapter argues that people are more likely to help an individual than contribute to a larger cause if that cause does not immediately concern them. Researchers have confirmed that people are more likely to donate to an individual in need than toward eradicating the cause of that person’s situation: Other people’s pain elicits emotions, whereas statistics elicit analytical thinking. In another experiment, the same researchers determined that solving a math problem before being asked to donate to a cause makes people contribute less money—when people are primed to think analytically, they feel less and care less.
The Heaths stress that making messages emotional is not about concocting “sob stories” but inspiring people to act. In the late 1990s, a teen antismoking ad called the “Truth Campaign” depicted teens piling body bags in front of a tobacco company to show how many people their products kill every day. It was wildly successful: It encouraged emotion by painting big tobacco companies as villains and tapped into teens’ rebellious spirit.
Sticky ideas can conjure emotions by tapping into existing schemas with emotional association. This process is called “semantic stretching” (173). In other words, new ideas can be associated with things people already care about to bring out their emotions. However, if concepts stretch too much, they cease to be emotional and sometimes true. For example, the overuse of the word “sportsmanship” rendered the term unappealing—sportsmanship trophies came to be seen as a consolation prize for “losers” (175). In response, the Positive Coaching Alliance came up with a new term, “Honoring the Game,” which associates sports with the concept of integrity, a cause larger than individual athletes.
“Appealing to Self-Interest” is another method to make people care. Famed copywriter John Caples designs headlines that appeal to his audience’s self-interest, promising them “huge benefits for trivial costs” (178). At the root of Caples’s approach is to address “what’s in it for you” (179). Studies have revealed that people are indeed drawn toward the tangible benefits they can get from a product. Psychologist Abraham Maslow listed eight internal motivations in his famous Hierarchy of Needs—transcendence, self-actualization, aesthetic, learning, esteem, belonging, security, and physical comfort—although research has shown that it is not a hierarchy and that people pursue these needs simultaneously. “Dining in Iraq” proves that transcendence and aesthetic can be as motivating as physical comfort and security: For instance, US Army chef Floyd Lee improved soldiers’ morale by transforming the famous Pegasus mess hall into a locale for relaxation; his commitment to treating the soldiers well motivates them.
Externally, people are motivated by the interests of the larger identity group in which they belong. Principles, such as equality, individualism, and human rights, can also motivate an individual’s behavior. This is especially true of people’s political views: Political scientist Donald Kinder believes self-interest exercises little influence on voting patterns. “Don’t Mess with Texas” proves that appealing to group identity can sometimes more effectively motivate people than appealing to their self-interest. In Texas, antilitter campaigns that relied on making people feel guilt and shame were ineffective on the typical litterer—an “eighteen to thirty-five-year-old, pickup-driving male who liked sports and country music” and who “didn’t like authority” (196). Instead, this group was more likely to change their behavior if they were convinced that people like them—that is, masculine Texan men—do not litter.
Chapter 5’s idea clinic demonstrates that people can be motivated beyond maximizing their self-interest. To convince students that learning algebra is worthwhile, a teacher uses several SUCCESs strategies. First, the teacher declares that algebra will never be useful outside of class, surprising students who do not expect teachers to state that any knowledge is useless. The teacher then uses an analogy: People do not lift weights because they expect barbells to fall on their chests—they do it to develop muscles that help with other tasks. This highlights the tangible benefits of algebra, making the message stick.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Stories”
Chapter 6 opens with a story of a nurse who saved a newborn’s life by convincing the medical team that the heart monitor’s reading was misleading. After seeing that the baby was displaying signs of pneumopericardium, she quickly realized the heart monitor’s shortfall: it only measured electrical activity, not actual heartbeats, thus hiding the dangerous condition. Psychologist Gary Klein, who researches how people make decisions in high-pressure environments, observes that in situations that require split-second decisions, people are more prone to circulate these types of inspirational tales. Using stories to communicate ideas provides knowledge about how to act and pushes people toward taking action.
In “Shop Talk in the Xerox Lunchroom,” a printer repairman recounted to his colleagues how a misleading error message led him on a wild goose chase until he finally recognized that the problem actually happened elsewhere. By sharing his experience using dramatic flair and suspense, he allowed colleagues to simulate the same scenario in their minds, retaining the lesson much more easily than if the solution were disseminated in a work email.
Engaging stories make active listeners. A study conducted at UCLA revealed that students told to mentally simulate solutions to problems were more likely than others to take action: Imagining an event engages the same modules of the brain in charge of real physical activity. Simulations also help people anticipate results, thereby allowing them to better regulate their emotions, build skills, and solve problems. Mental simulation “is not as good as actually doing something,” but it is “the next best thing” (213).
Stories are also inspirational. “The Tale of Jared” describes Subway’s successful ad campaign featuring Jared Fogle, who lost 100 pounds in three months eating only their sandwiches. Jared’s story was inspirational because of his dramatic weight loss, which had simulation value for people who aspire to slim down. It also included all elements of the SUCCESs checklist: a simple message (eat at Subway to lose weight), unexpectedness (fast food is commonly seen as unhealthy), concreteness (weight loss can be seen and measured), credibility (Jared is an anti-authority), emotionality (the success of a single individual), and a story. One of the drawbacks of relying on anti-authorities, however, is the unpredictability of human behavior. Made to Stick does not address the fact that Jared Fogle was convicted for the commercial sexual exploitation of children and possessing child pornography in 2015 after an FBI investigation, which ended his stint as Subway spokesman.
Stories, just like ads, have templates; some are more effective than others. The Heaths divide most successful stories into three categories: challenge, connection, and creativity. The challenge plot focuses on a protagonist overcoming a daunting obstacle and inspires readers to persevere. The connection plot is about people developing relationships with others by bridging cultural, racial, religious, or other types of gaps, thus inspiring tolerance and mutual help. The creativity plot depicts solving a problem in an innovative way. It encourages people to think creatively and explore new approaches.
The idea clinic in Chapter 6 tells the same story in two ways, highlighting how unexpectedness and emotion can make a message interesting. First, a teacher lists a few common-sense tips for how to deal with an aggressive and disruptive student. Then, the same ideas appear in a narrative that first features several unsuccessful attempts at negotiation between teacher and problem student, finally revealing that the student is more susceptible to peer pressure than authority. The unexpected resolution leaves the audience inspired and entertained.
Epilogue Summary: “What Sticks”
This final section emphasizes the importance of messages reflecting an idea’s core. Once delivered, a message is at the mercy of its audience’s interpretation. Misremembered or distorted ideas can be as sticky as accurate ones. For example, Leo Durocher, a coach for the Dodgers baseball team, once criticized the Giants by calling them the “nicest guys in the world” and pointing out that they’re “in seventh place” (238). From his outburst devolved the saying “nice guys finish last,” the meaning of which was not Durocher’s intention. Similarly, Sherlock Holmes is remembered as saying, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” even though this phrase does not appear in the stories. The Heaths conclude that an idea is successful even if its message is modified or improved by the audience as long as it remains true to its core.
Chapters 5-Epilogue Analysis
This final section reprises anecdotal examples from previous chapters since they sometimes embody more than one element of the SUCCESs framework. For instance, Nordstrom’s success story has both unexpected and story features—the business uses surprising anecdotes to reinforce its core mission of excellent customer service, and the narrative quality of the accounts Nordstrom highlights is more effective than statistics or dry memos would be. This repetition of examples is important to demonstrate that the Heaths are correct with their six-element formula for effective messaging: In theory, each of the anecdotes they share should have within it all of the aspects they abbreviate as SUCCESs.
Maid to Stick often skirts the darker implication of what the Heaths have discovered—that messages become sticky regardless of their accuracy, truthfulness, helpfulness, or social benefit. These last sections feature a few telling reminders that if anyone who follows the book’s recipe can craft an idea guaranteed to go viral, there is no way to prevent bad actors from doing so. One such reminder follows the story of Jared Fogle, as the Heaths point out that compelling stories don’t need to be invented—a comment that indirectly confirms how many of these kinds of stories are untrue. Similarly, the revelations about Jared Fogle’s criminal behavior demonstrate how dangerous relying on anti-authority figures could be—something the US is now experiencing as the anti-vaccine movement grows while preventable diseases return en masse. Finally, the acknowledgment that many ideas stick despite being misunderstood or misremembered is another red flag about our general inability to control misinformation no matter the original good intentions of an idea’s creator.
In these last chapters, the Heaths also stress how basic human psychology tends to misinterpret the motivations of others, which can theoretically undermine the lessons they have provided so far. However, the idea of group identity comes into play to help counteract this issue since this then gives the individual an opportunity to extend their identity to others and assess their motivations in a more positive light. Ultimately, the Heaths present a rather bleak representation of humanity, which indicates that the objective in any situation is to inspire people to care, which in turn suggests that they don’t without coercion.
It is useful once again to note how the Heaths use their own techniques to support their arguments after reading through these last chapters. Specifically, the Heaths use anecdotal evidence that evokes emotions more than they use genuine scientific evidence. The text is designed to engage and inspire the reader more so than to offer up solid, objective evidence of their ideas.
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