WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

• This book provides more detailed substantiation for the claims made in his previous book Affluenza. It looks deeper into the origins of the virus and outlines the political, economic and social climate in which it has grown.
• Selfish capitalism started as Thatcherism and Reaganomics and eventually prevailed in most other English-speaking nations too. Interestingly, most mainland Western European nations remain unaffected.
• We have become more miserable and distressed since the seventies, thanks to successive governments pushing the cause of personal capitalism.
• Whilst there has been a massive increase in the wealth of the wealthy, there has been no rise in average wages.
• We need to recapture a sense of self-worth and personal wellbeing if we are to overcome it.
• Erich Fromm's theory of American consumerism, said the choice in the 50s was 'to have or to be', and that we have become Marketing Characters 'based on experiencing oneself as a commodity' – nothing much has changed.
• In 1993 Kasser & Ryan published 'A dark side of the American dream', which showed that those who put financial success ahead of emotional development and making the world a better place suffered more depression and anxiety.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT

• Humans have four basic needs:
  • To feel safe and secure
  • To feel competent
  • To feel connected to others
  • To feel autonomously and authentically engaged in work and play
• Self-doubt correlates with materialism, so selfish capitalism undermines these needs
• Everyone feels that 'enough' income is 10% more than they have, although the elite are 130 times richer than the poorest – the greatest gap ever.
• The range of goods regarded as 'essential' in a household has increased dramatically. Even when prices drop, 'better' models become imperative.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy assumes that unpleasant emotions (stress) result from inaccurate thinking, and is now offered as a quick fix on the NHS.
• Terror Management Theory suggests that politicians can get elected by manipulating collective fear of attack, based on our innate need for security.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

• Not much. It is a rolling narrative so you have to dig for nuggets.

The one-sentence summary

Forget individual choice – people just copy each other, but crowds usually get it right.

WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

• The book is subtitled Why the many are smarter than the few and was first aired by the author as a column in The New Yorker magazine
• History tells us that when you want something done you turn to a leader: right? Wrong. If you want to make a correct decision or solve a problem, large groups of people are smarter than a few experts.
• The theory of the wisdom of crowds has huge implications for the way we run our businesses, structure our political systems, and organise our society.
• When Charles Mackay wrote in 1841 about Extraordinary Popular Decisions and the Madness of Crowds, he presented an endlessly entertaining chronicle of mass manias and collective follies. This book proposes the opposite.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

• The book could change the way you think about human behaviour. His points include:

  ~ In 1906 800 people guessed the weight of an ox. Their average was exactly right.
  ~ In 1968 a submarine was lost, and was only found when a range of scenarios were pieced together did they find it.
  ~ On Who wants to be a millionaire? the experts (phone a friend) are right 61% of the time, and the crowd 91%

• The difference difference makes: tiny changes can make for mass acceptance
• Monkey see, monkey do: independence is important to intelligent decision making
• Putting the pieces together: decentralisation (letting go) makes for better collective decisions
• Shall we dance? Coordination is possible in a complex world, as evidenced by how huge numbers of people successfully navigate their way round busy city streets
• Committees, juries and teams: these do not make good decisions if they are led in a certain direction by the chairperson
• The company: meet the new boss, same as the old boss? Companies that coordinate their behaviour with that of their customers do better, such as Zara delivering new lines twice a week instead of once a fashion season.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

• There are no clear sections so you have to burrow deep for these nuggets.

This week a combined podcast featuring Herd by Mark Earls (book summary posted last year – see Earls right) and The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (summary to come).

Download Herd and The Wisdon of Crowds

The one-sentence summary

People don’t always buy things for the reasons they think they do.

WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

• Subtitled How everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong, the book tries to explain why we don’t always buy things for the reasons we think we do. It uses neuromarketing, an intriguing marriage of marketing and science, to provide window into the human mind.
• Buyology is defined as the subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive purchasing decisions. His main point is that conventional research doesn’t work to explain these decisions. Neither quantitative surveys nor qualitative groups correlate well with actual sales. We are a lot better at collecting data than doing anything useful with it.
• His investigations are mildly controversial because they involve hooking respondents up to a range of wires or putting them in scanners. The two main techniques are SST (Steady State Topography) and FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). They effectively show which parts of the brain react to various stimuli.
• His belief is that by better understanding our seemingly irrational behaviour we can gain more control of our actions.
• Our mirror neurons make us imitate the actions we observe, which is why crazes and marketing phenomena catch on via copying.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

• His techniques reveal some interesting things, including:

  ~ Product placement doesn’t work, even though many companies spend a fortune doing it.

  ~ Warnings about the perils of smoking can increase smoking because they unintentionally trigger all the (nice) cues that people associate with it.

  ~ $12 billion is spent on market research in the USA every year, and yet 8 out of 10 new products fail within the first three months, so it doesn’t really work.

  ~ The Pepsi Challenge misled marketers because it was sip test – drink a whole can and Coke still won.

  ~ Subliminal messages work, which is why people want to smoke more when in a Marlboro lounge containing imagery subtly reminiscent of the brand.

  ~ Rituals work, as in the 119.53 seconds it takes to pour a pint of Guinness.

  ~ Strong brands excite the brain in the same way as religious images.

  ~ Sex detracts from decent branding. This is the Vampire Effect – sucking attention away from what ads are actually trying to say.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

• Not everyone approves of the research techniques because they feel too close to lab experiments.

The one-sentence summary

Most middle class people have too much of everything, but it hasn’t made them any happier.

WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

• This is not a book about communications but it provides deep insights into the psychology of humans and as such is important for consumer understanding.
• Affluenza is defined as a contagious middle class virus causing depression, addiction and ennui. This is an epidemic sweeping the world.
• In order to counteract it and ensure our mental health, we should pursue our needs rather than our wants – the majority of which are unsustainable.
• There is a questionnaire at the front to establish whether you have the virus, and a manifesto at the end suggesting how it can be stopped.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

• There are hundreds of examples from all over the world and sources from academic studies to demonstrate that this is not simply a biased rant.
• He outlines many possible vaccines to the virus, which include:
• Have positive volition (not Think Positive) – make choices
• Replace virus motives (with intrinsic ones) – for the right reasons
• Be beautiful (not attractive) – don’t conform to a marketing ideal
• Consume what you need (not what advertisers want you to want)
• Meet your children’s needs (not those of little adults)
• Educate your children (don’t brainwash them)
• Enjoy motherhood (not desperate housewifery/househusbandry)
• Be authentic (not sincere), vivacious (not hyperactive) and playful (not game-playing)
• In addition you need to sort out your childhood and reject much of the status quo in order to be a satisfied, unstressed individual.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

• It contains a pretty blistering condemnation of the advertising industry and goes so far as to recommend a total ban on exceptionally attractive models.
• Because the author is a psychologist, he is prone to recommending therapy, which may not suit everybody. Willpower could be just as effective.