Made to Stick

Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideasbusiness people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and othersstruggle to make their ideas "stick." Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? InMade to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the "human scale principle," using the "Velcro Theory of Memory," and creating "curiosity gaps." In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kindsfrom the infamous "kidney theft ring" hoax to a coach's lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sonydraw their power from the same six traits. Made to Stickis a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It's a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures)the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of "the Mother Teresa Effect"; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny,Made to Stickshows us the vital principles of winning ideasand tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

Chip Heath is a professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He lives in Los Gatos, California.

Dan Heath is a consultant at Duke Corporate Education. A former researcher at Harvard Business School, he is a co-founder of Thinkwell, an innovative new-media textbook company. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.