Jonah Berger
- Associate Professor of Marketing
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
jberger@wharton.upenn.edu - Office Phone:
(215) 898-8249
Research Interests: Digital Marketing, Influence, Word of Mouth, Natural Language Processing, Viral Marketing
Links: CV, Personal Website
Overview
For most recent news and research, see jonahberger.com
Professor Jonah Berger is an internationally bestselling author, and a world-renowned expert on influence, change, word of mouth, natural language processing, consumer behavior, digital marketing, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He has published over 75 articles in top‐tier academic journals, teaches one of the world’s most popular online courses, and accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Millions of copies of his books, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind, Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way are in print in over 35 countries around the world. Berger often keynotes major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions, advises various early stage companies, and consults for organizations like Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, GE, Moderna, and The Gates Foundation.
His recent work uses natural language processing to pull behavioral insights from text data (e.g., predicting song success from lyrics, movie success from scripts, and customer satisfaction from service calls). He co-founded the Technology and Behavioral Science Initiative and helps host an interdisciplinary conference on Behavioral Insights from Text.
Research
Giovanni Luca Cascio-Rizzo, Jonah Berger, Mi Zhou (2025), How Hand Movements Shape Communication’s Impact, Journal of Marketing Research.
Matt Rocklage and Jonah Berger (2025), The Trajectory of Confidence: Experience, Certainty, and Consumer Choice, Journal of Marketing Research.
Alex Van Zant, Jonah Berger, Grant Packard, Harry Wang (2025), The Power of Pausing, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Jonah Berger (2025), What Gets Shared, and Why? Interpersonal Communication and Word of Mouth, Annual Review of Psychology.
Jonah Berger, Stijn M. J. van Osselaer, Chris Janiszewski (2025), Casting a Wider Net: Using Automated Content Analysis to Discover New ideas, Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Grant Packard, Yang Li, Jonah Berger (2024), When Language Matters, Journal of Consumer Research.
Grant Packard and Jonah Berger (2024), The Emergence and Evolution of Consumer Language Research, Journal of Consumer Research.
Demi Oba and Jonah Berger (2024), How Communication Mediums Shape the Message, Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Jonah Berger and Olivier Toubia (2024), The Topography of Thought, Proceedings of The National Academy of Science Nexus.
Giovanni Luca Cascio-Rizzo and Jonah Berger, How Speaking Rate Shapes Consumer Response.
Awards and Honors
- Sheth Foundation Award, Journal of Marketing, 2025 Description
Best article published in the Journal of Marketing that has made long-term contributions to the field of marketing
- Hunt/Maynard Award Finalist, Journal of Marketing, 2024 Description
Most significant contribution to marketing theory and thought
- William F. O’Dell Award, Journal of Marketing Research,, 2019
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research, 2016
- Best 2012 Article Finalist, Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
- Top 30 Leaders in Business, American Management Association, 2015
- Berry-AMA Book Prize for Best Book in Marketing, 2014
- Top 5 Most Productive Researchers in Marketing 2009-13, AMA DocSig, 2013
- Paul Green Award, Journal of Marketing Research, Finalist, 2013
- Most Creative People in Business, Fast Company, 2013
- Early Career Award, Association for Consumer Research, 2012
- Early Career Award, Society for Consumer Psychology, 2012
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research, 2011
- Winner, Iron Professor Competition, The Wharton School, 2011
- MBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award, 2011
- MSI – Young Scholars Program, 2011
- Top 10 Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011
- JCR Best Paper in 2007 Award, Finalist, 2010
In the News
- Parents looking for ‘cool factor’ in baby names, USA Today - 11/29/2012
- 4 Decision Making Mistakes to Avoid, INC Magazine - 11/26/2012
- How to Cope With a Terrible Review, Businessweek - 11/16/2012
- Hurricanes and Hot Baby Names, New York Times Op-Ed - 11/09/2012
- Did your team win? That might affect how you vote., Washington Post - 11/01/2012
- Mobile Telephone Start-Up Solavei Avoids Ads, Relies on Customers for Sales Leads, Dail Beast - 10/24/2012
- Chanel No. 5’s heavy notes of Brad Pitt tickling the wrong senses at the moment, Chicago Tribune - 10/24/2012
- ‘Old-fashioned’ has lost its chic for Wendy’s, NPR - Marketplace - 10/11/2012
- Good bye ivory tower, hello social media: academics struggle to make ideas accessible, WHYY - 09/28/2012
- Crafting Contagious, Google Think Quarterly - 07/19/2012
- Penn Researchers Detail Polling-place Effect, Penn News - 05/22/2012
- Sophia and Jacob are most popular U.S. baby names, USA Today - 05/15/2012
- When to Ignore Web Memes, Wired - 04/01/2012
- Should you read this story? Why you’re having trouble deciding, MSNBC - 03/14/2012
- Bad Reviews Can Boost Sales. Here’s Why, Harvard Business Review - 03/01/2012
- Hidden triggers prompt voters’ choices, USA Today - 01/20/2012
- Polling Location May Influence Vote, Study Finds, ABC News - 01/19/2012
- Decision Quicksand, Wall Street Journal - 11/30/2011
- Five Tips for Driving Word-of-Mouth — No Matter What Your Product Is, Ad Age - 11/28/2011
- The Drive to Be Different, Wired - 10/14/2011
- If You Want to Win, Tell Your Team It’s Losing (A Little), Harvard Business Review - 10/01/2011
- No Room for Promises in Advertising, Business Week - 08/27/2011
- The Physiology of (Over-)Sharing, The Atlantic - 08/05/2011
- Why You Just Shared That Baby Video, Wall Street Journal - 07/23/2011
- New Study Shows How To Rack Up Retweets:, Fast Company - 06/29/2011
- Bet on the Losing Team, Scientific American - 06/28/2011
- Decision Quicksand, The Guardian - 05/21/2011
- Under the Influence: How the Group Changes What We Think, Wall Street Journal - 05/03/2011
- Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard?, Wired Magazine - 03/02/2011
- The Formula for a Most-Emailed Story, NPR - 02/25/2011
- Better to be reviled than ignored, The Economist - 02/24/2011
- The End Of Trends: If It’s Hot, It’s Over, NPR - 02/09/2011
- The Tyranny of Choice, BBC - 01/11/2011
- The Key to Fulfillment, Oprah.com - 12/01/2010
- Can Negative Publicity Help?, New York Times - 10/30/2010
- Why Elite Shoppers Eschew Logos, New York Times - 07/26/2010
- Brands and Stores Want Haul Videos, Marketplace, National Public Radio - 07/13/2010
- Inconspicuous Consumption: Subtle Signals of Style, Psychology Today - 06/01/2010
- 5 Reasons Your Fast-Car Is More Social Than Your Fast-Food, Fast Company - 05/10/2010 Description
Hello
- Applause, Please, for Early Adopters, New York Times - 05/09/2010
- The market is bleeding, so I’m selling!, Marketplace, National Public Radio - 05/01/2010
- Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome, New York Times - 02/09/2010
- The Feel-Good Economy, The Globe and Mail - 01/28/2010
- Examining the shifting trends in baby names, Philadelphia Inquirer - 12/30/2009
- What Is It About “It” Gifts?, NPR - Talk of the Nation - 12/24/2009
- How Do Popular Holiday Gifts Become Popular?, Washington Post - 12/13/2009
- Paper checks… Remember those?, NPR - Marketplace - 12/02/2009
- Why We Love — and Love to Hate — Fads, Wall Street Journal - 08/10/2009
- Don’t Blog or Tweet Anything With More Than Half a Million Hits, Wired Magazine - 07/15/2009
- Berlin Bans Brakeless Bikes, Freakonomics Blog - 07/02/2009
- Cultural Latency, Fast Company - 07/01/2009
- American Apparel suit means cheap ads, NPR - Marketplace - 05/18/2009
- Quick Arriving Fads Quick to Flame Out, New York Times - 05/17/2009
- Heather Today, Gone Tomorrow, Scientific American - 05/04/2009
- How Twitter Might Be More Popular and Less Cool, San Jose Mercury News - 04/24/2009
- A Slight Deficit Can Actually Be an Edge, The New York Times - 03/16/2009
- When Being Down At Halftime Is A Good Thing, Wall Street Journal - 03/06/2009
- Las Vegas Touts Its Affordability, Wall Street Journal - 02/04/2009
- Frugalness Is The New Chic, National Public Radio - 01/21/2009
- Psychology: Bias at the Ballot Box, Nature - 11/28/2008
- How to Turn a Herd on Wall Street, New York Times - 11/09/2008
- Brain Research on Buying, Stanford Magazine - 11/04/2008
- Warm Your Hands, Warm Your Outlook, National Geographic News - 10/24/2008
- Modifying political behavior by manipulating group identification, Huffington Post - 09/10/2008
- Poll Position, Stanford Social Innovation Review - 09/01/2008
- Subconscious Decisions: Voting in Churches and Buying Designer Labels, Scientific American - 08/28/2008
- When Images Speak Louder Than Words, Huffington Post - 08/21/2008
- Surprising Insights from the Social Sciences, Boston Globe - 07/13/2008
- Polling Places’ Surprising Sway, Scientific American Mind - 07/01/2008
- Too Racy for JC Penney, NPR - Marketplace - 06/24/2008
- How Do You Vote? Depends on Where You Vote, ABC News - 06/24/2008
- Your Polling Place Affects How You Vote, NPR - All Things Considered - 06/23/2008
- Where You Vote Affects How You Vote, Nature - 06/23/2008
- Voter Decision Affected by Polling Place, Study Finds, National Geographic - 06/23/2008
- Contexts and Product Choice, National Public Radio (WNYC) - 05/30/2008
- Subtly but Visibly Swayed by Context, New York Times - 05/12/2008
- Herd on the Street, CNBC - 04/10/2008
- Philly’s best cooks, Blog - 02/06/2008
- If You Like It, It Must Be Uncool, US News & World Report - 01/09/2008
- Variety Can Change Your Mind, Boston Globe - 01/04/2008
- Chequebook Frugalista: Marketers are reframing ad messages, Financial Post - 12/12/2007
- Timeless Object, New York Times - Consumed - 10/28/2007
- Time to Get Trigger Happy, Fast Company - 10/01/2007
- Researchers on the hunt for cool, Vancouver Sun - 09/15/2007
- I Think, You Behave, Science - 06/01/2007
- What You See Affects What You Get, Sloan Management Review - 05/01/2007
- Dancing To The Beat of Their Own Drummer, Vancouver Sun - 04/26/2007
- Voting Booth Feng Shui, New York Times - 12/10/2006
Knowledge at Wharton
- How Confidence Changes Consumer Loyalty, Knowledge at Wharton - 3/2/2026
- Hand Gestures Can Help You Sell. Here’s Why, Knowledge at Wharton - 2/10/2026
- What Makes Virtual Influencers Effective?, Knowledge at Wharton - 5/9/2025
- How Speaking Slower Influences Consumer Behavior, Knowledge at Wharton - 4/8/2025
- Small Shifts, Big Impact: Elevate Your Leadership, Knowledge at Wharton - 1/28/2025
- Boosting Donations Through Self-expressive Choices | Jonah Berger, Knowledge at Wharton - 11/19/2024
- Why Influencers Should Pay Attention to Word Choice, Knowledge at Wharton - 9/16/2024
- What Does Your Writing Style Say About You?, Knowledge at Wharton - 7/23/2024
- Has Music Become Less Misogynistic?, Knowledge at Wharton - 5/14/2024
- Want to Live a Meaningful Life? Be the Hero of Your Story, Knowledge at Wharton - 2/19/2024
Wharton Stories
- The Story Behind Wharton Convocation and 7 Pieces of Advice to Begin Your Academic Journey, Wharton Stories - 08/06/2018
Activity
Latest Research
In the News
How Confidence Changes Consumer LoyaltyNew research from Wharton’s Jonah Berger explores how experience in a category shapes how confident consumers feel, which has important consequences for brands.…Read More
Knowledge at Wharton - 3/2/2026Wharton Stories
The Story Behind Wharton Convocation and 7 Pieces of Advice to Begin Your Academic JourneyThink of Convocation as a bookend to Commencement — you walk together as a class for the first time through the doors of Irvine Auditorium and in two years, you’ll process out of the Palestra as Wharton graduates….
Wharton Stories - 08/06/2018