What I really liked about The Catalyst is how its principles can be applied across a range of scenarios—whether you're trying to influence consumer behavior in digital marketing or drive organizational change. Berger’s examples, though broad, actually showcase the versatility of his approach, which makes the book applicable to just about any field. It got me thinking about how we can use these insights not just to solve business challenges, but to create more seamless customer experiences by removing friction. For anyone looking to become more effective in influencing change—whether in marketing, leadership, or personal life—this book offers practical strategies that can be immediately put to use.

Ideas that everyone can use, in a format that anyone can understand. I really like all the books coming out lately that make old ideas new again, and help people navigate through complex social and business structures! Kudos!

The Catalyst has good concepts on how to go about getting other's to reduce resistance and change their minds. At times I thought the author was repeating himself and it seemed to get redundant. Overall, I thought the book was a good read and would recommend it to others seeking information or help with this topic.

Excerpt from BookBrowse:

Wharton professor Jonah Berg provides an accessible guide to convincing even the most stubborn people to change by reducing the obstacles standing in their way.

I'm dealing with some issues at work (who isn't?) where I'd like to be able to change some minds. This book appealed because I was hoping to pick up some new ideas. While there was some good advice, the vast majority was just common sense to me. Introduce something in small doses to build support gradually. Remove barriers in order to change minds. Find the middle ground. The most helpful point was to basically quit banging your head against the wall trying to push people. Better to figure out why they haven't changed already, and change incentives. Berger repeats himself unnecessarily and I found myself skimming. I appreciated the nuggets of good practices.

I received this advance review from NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an unbiased review.

Interesting ideas and stories. I gotten through the book pretty quick. I felt that many of the examples have already been printed in other books to date and in some chapters I moved quickly and scanned. The author does bring a few examples and narratives in each chapter so following along sometimes gets lost in translation.

I loved everything about this book! It was such a help and delivered on the big promise it makes up front in the subtitle. The examples the author uses to make his point are excellent. and it even gives you an excellent formula at the end to remember all the points in the book. Jonah has a great teaching style and goes over what you've learned it a way that pulls it all together. I can now see how to better apply my energy to be more constructive when it comes to influences others. And I can also see better, how and when others use these tactics on me! I highly recommend this book, especially now when there is so much conflicting viewpoints and confusion happening in the world. This book contributes to less stress at best!

The Catalyst (2020) is so good! There are so many wonderful examples in it, and I sat reading in the Waitrose cafe not noticing the time passing. It’s a book about how to reduce resistance to change through removing the roadblocks.

Instead of pushing harder, first seek to understand. Then you can dismantle the objections one at a time. Berger gives you a step-by-step guide to do exactly that. The case studies and examples are brilliant, and help illustrate his points with such clarity.

This one is a must-read.

THE CATALYST

With The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind, Jonah Berger wades into the complex subject of change management.

Certainly, many authors have made their own substantial contributions to the literature on the subject. The novelty of Berger’s centers upon a) an emphasis on the roadblocks to change management and b) a focus on the psychology behind it.

Getting people to change behavior is hard, often because there are many obstacles that stand in the way of effecting change. For his part, Berger posits that there are five specific roadblocks that prevent people from embracing change:


- Reactance, or the fact that people naturally resist change;

- Endowment, or the tendency that people have to overstate the costs of the change while understating the costs of the status quo;

- Distance, or how people’s default position can be extremely far off relative to the desired change;

- Uncertainty, or how people prefer the “sure thing” to the uncertain thing (ironically, whether good or bad); and

- Corroborating Evidence, or more precisely the way people need to validate why a change is beneficial before embracing it.

Thus, Berger presents an approach to address these roadblocks that relies largely on reframing the issue so that the often bitter pill of change is easier to swallow. This is largely consistent with Berger’s prior work on human psychology and how the latter affects which ideas catch on and why certain people acquire outsize influence over others.

Astute readers will note seeming conflicting themes in Berger’s framework. For instance, in discussing the issue of reactance, he notes that presenting logical arguments or even empirical data can be counter-productive to encouraging change; when confronted with such information, people are liable to double-down on their existing beliefs or behaviors instead. After all, people are emotional as much as (or arguably even more than) they are rational. But Berger also acknowledges that people nonethelss need corroborating evidence to encourage change, which appears to run contrary to the earlier point.

Contradictory? Perhaps. While there’s something to be said for conceptual frameworks that are completely internally consistent, Berger’s captures the complex nature of change management. Ultimately, change is a messy and sometimes contradictory process, and we are fortunate that there are books like The Catalyst that distill insights into how to make it easier to accept.

We all seem to want to change someone's mind about something. The Catalyst puts the spotlight on the roadblocks we all encounter and how to overcome them. If you want to influence someone Jonah Berger gives you the tools for change. I highly recommend The Catalyst

REVIEW—The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind | Jonah Berger

In chemistry, the purpose of a catalyst is simple: to reduce the energy needed for a reaction. In his third book, marketing consultant and professor Jonah Berger applies this concept to his world of marketing and persuasion. The titular “Catalyst” is a person who changes minds not by overloading with facts and figures, but by removing roadblocks and breaking down the barriers to change.

Berger prescribes his recipe for inciting change through acronym: REDUCE—reduce Reactance, ease Endowment, shrink Distance, alleviate Uncertainty, and find Corroborating Evidence. “The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind” includes nothing groundbreaking, but its clear presentation and convincing evidence make it a helpful read for anyone wanting to change minds.

Each chapter elaborates on a letter of the acronym and provides practical strategies to implement change. Berger explores techniques used by hostage negotiators and early e-sales pioneers like Amazon and Zappos and how people have done what truly seems impossible these days: changed political parties. He shows how catalysts help to alleviate the pains of change and make it easier for those involved to adopt a new product or way of thinking. The section on Corroborating Evidence reminded me of what we do here on #bookstagram: provide reviews from multiple trustworthy sources to help us decide what books to read.

“The Catalyst” is written to be accessible and applicable to a broad audience and Berger hits the mark. It is easy to extrapolate its strategies to use in your own life, or at least to better understand the ways that marketers and change-makers do what they do. As an arts marketer, it helped me to clarify my thinking about decision-making and to structure key marketing ideas in a simple way.

Finally, thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and the author for providing an advance copy in exchange for my review. Happy publication day!

Overall: “The Catalyst” is a practical guide for making change, wherever you may need it. ★★★★ ½ .

As a coach I found Catalyst incredibly insightful and helpful. It's enabled me to take a different approach to aiding a specific group of clients with genuine desire for change that have yet to yield results that inform any sort of long lasting transformation.

In addition it's also informed me on how I can become a better instrument in their process. It doesn't matter what industry we're in it's more than likely we'll all find ourselves at one time or another in the position to influence the thoughts and/or actions of others, and cajoling, pushing and bullying no longer works (if they ever did) on our highly informed audiences.

Thank you Jonah for helping me see through this book how invoking a simple change of thought could be the spark (or catalyst) that they need. I'm an avid reader of Jonah Berger and this book does not disappoint. I'm thankful to NetGalley Simon and Schuster to have been able to receive an advanced copy of this book.

While many of the concepts presented can be found in other papers and publications, The Catalyst brings it all under one roof, with Jonah Berger providing the framework, insights and vocabulary necessary to understand the complexities of effecting change.

Berger introduces the five horsemen of inertia and demonstrates in detail how Catalysts reduce Reactance, ease Endowment, shrink Distance, alleviate Uncertainty, and find Corroborating Evidence. As the challenges of change manifest differently in each situation, Berger's perspective provide us with a diverse set of strategies to deploy.

From products to politics, humans are quite often resistant to change, and while many pundits focus on 'the art of persuasion', an underlying theme presented here might be called 'the art of understanding', which requires a shift in our intent. "Trying to influence someone makes it all about you. It’s not about other people, and their wants and motivations; it’s about you and what you want." Wise words to embrace.

TL;DR REVIEW:
The Catalyst is a helpful, well-researched book about lowering the barriers of resistance in people’s minds. There were some really good nuggets in there that I will probably use quite often.

For you if: You like big idea nonfiction and work in marketing, non-profit work, politics, or another industry where you are trying to persuade.

FULL REVIEW:
I was drawn to The Catalyst mostly because Jonah Berger wrote it. I really liked his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On and found it useful, so I was happy to read his latest. Much like Contagious, I found this book to be helpful and useful. It’s also a quick read.

The Catalyst talks about why the human brain has a tendency to dig its heels in, cling to what it already knows, and resist change. Then it breaks down five techniques to help lower those barriers to help people feel more open and comfortable with the idea of changing their minds. Berger uses engaging stories and examples and cites a ton of research to bring it all to life.

Sometimes when I read big idea nonfiction, I’m not sure if the author is telling me something that I implicitly already knew, or they are just good at writing so that their conclusions feel natural and believable. I think it’s a bit of both, especially with this book. I conceptually understood a lot of his points before, I think, but he’s packaged them in a way that turns those things into tools.

In my day job, I write longform marketing content for a financial services start-up, so we are always trying to change behavior (to help people live their best lives!). I have already found myself thinking about pieces of this book in my day-to-day.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Within his examples — Hateful language directed at religious groups (e.g., Islamophobia, antisemitism); Transphobia and trans misogyny; Homophobia and heterosexism

I may not read a lot of business books, but I do see a fair number of nonfiction book proposals, and I would hold this book up as a classic how-to in terms of structure. It seems like a smart cataloging of strategies to help begin the process to change someone's mind. It did not seem ground-breaking, but nonetheless helpful in articulating the barriers and in suggesting the steps to becoming a catalyst. I enjoyed the anecdotes and case studies, though I wasn't sure that all of them were the right tool for the job. If I were in sales and marketing, I would definitely give The Catalyst a skim, if not a full-fledged read. Perhaps I'll be surprised at how helpful this book's concepts are in my future.

[I received a copy of this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.]

An interesting look at the psychology of what people think and how to change their minds. Focused in particular on business and consumer habits. Lots of real-life examples (from the Tide Pod challenge to hostage negotiation). Will appeal to readers who enjoy business books, pop science, psychology, and more.

Really interested dive into what prevents people from adopting new ideas, and how to nudge them along. (Hint: it's not spewing more facts at them.) Definitely want to revisit these ideas and work on applying them in my negotiations.

This book is well written and easy to understand. The examples provided were practical and backed by good research. There was nothing super surprising to me, pretty much human nature. Some spots were repetitive but overall enjoyed the read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book has a straight forward answer on how to change anyone’s mind. The concepts are really well explained and enough examples are provided to strengthen the ideas.

I also like that the book is written in an easy to understand manner. It is not too informal but also not too academic. It is just right.

I also appreciate that the concepts are well researched. Readers can see the citation of other materials on which this book is based.

More importantly this book is timeless.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.I was curious about this book because, although I feel like I'm a fairly persuasive individual, we all could use insight on how to encourage others to see our point of view/make changes. That said, I'd say this book has easily approachable chapters with illustrative examples but the content sometimes felt repetitive within each chapter.