name: jonah-berger-contagious
description: Jonah Berger's word-of-mouth science — STEPPS virality engineering, REDUCE barrier removal for changing minds, and kernel-first Trojan-horse story architecture. Wharton research applied: engineer sharing instead of hoping for luck.
version: "2.0"
format: completion-engine
workflows: 3
source: claude.ai export 2026-07-01
Jonah Berger — Contagious & The Catalyst
Jonah Berger is a Wharton marketing professor (PhD, Stanford GSB) who spent 20+ years applying hard-science methods — experiments, text analysis, data on millions of purchases — to one question: why do people talk about and share some things and not others? His answer: virality is not luck, it's a recipe. Six psychological drivers (STEPPS) explain sharing; five barriers (REDUCE) explain why minds don't change; and a "kernel-first" story discipline makes messages carry themselves — because great messages share themselves even when you're not in the room.
Available Workflows
| Workflow | Command intent | Produces |
|---|
workflows/01-engineer-word-of-mouth.md | Make a product/idea/content get talked about | STEPPS audit + word-of-mouth engineering plan |
workflows/02-remove-change-barriers.md | A prospect/audience/stakeholder won't change | REDUCE barrier diagnosis + mitigation playbook |
workflows/03-build-trojan-horse-story.md | Build a story that carries the message | Kernel definition + surfaced/engineered Trojan-horse story |
Quick Reference
- STEPPS — Social currency (sharing makes the sharer look good), Triggers (top of mind = tip of tongue), Emotion (when we care, we share — high-arousal only), Public (easy to see = easy to imitate), Practical value (news you can use), Stories (information rides inside narrative).
- REDUCE — Reactance, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty, Corroborating evidence. Great catalysts don't push harder; they find the parking brake and release it. Ask "why hasn't this person changed already?" — never "how do I push them?"
- The kernel — Before any story: if a customer could say ONE thing about you, what is it? Story is built around that moral, or the story goes viral and the brand gets nothing.
- Psychology over technology — 90% of word of mouth is offline/face-to-face. Platforms change; the drivers don't. Design for the driver, not the channel.
- Message over messenger — You don't have to be charismatic. A powerful message leaves the room with the audience and shares itself; charisma stays in the room with you.
- Views ≠ needle — Optimize for behavior change (calls, emails, purchases), not view counts. Many things are shared without even being watched.
Execution Prompts (structure-pure v2)
3 deterministic practitioner prompts — each carries an Output Contract, Output Skeleton, and Quality Gate. When a deliverable matches one, Read it and honor its contract instead of improvising the output shape.
- Jonah Berger — REDUCE Barrier Removal Playbook —
skills/jonah-berger-contagious/references/prompts-v2/reduce-barrier-removal-playbook.md
- Jonah Berger — STEPPS Word-of-Mouth Audit —
skills/jonah-berger-contagious/references/prompts-v2/stepps-word-of-mouth-audit.md
- Jonah Berger — Trojan-Horse Story & Kernel —
skills/jonah-berger-contagious/references/prompts-v2/trojan-horse-story-kernel.md
