PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
person2000s–present

Jonah Berger

Disciplines:
usa
marketing
social philosophy/social contagion
wharton

Summary

American marketing professor at Wharton who wrote Contagious: Why Things Catch On — the most cited popular book on viral marketing and social transmission — and Invisible Influence, The Catalyst, and Magic Words — studying why some products, ideas, and behaviors spread while others don't.

Core Contribution

Created the most evidence-based framework for viral marketing — STEPPS (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories) gave marketers an empirical rather than intuitive framework for designing word-of-mouth, replacing 'make it go viral' with specific psychological mechanisms.

Notable Works & Achievements

Contagious

Invisible Influence

The Catalyst

Magic Words

Historical Influences

Malcolm Gladwell Word-of-mouth research tradition

Intellectual Lineage

Wharton Contagious

Contemporaries & Peers

Malcolm Gladwell Chip Heath

Minds Influenced

Marketing practiceLenny's Podcast

Intellectual Posterity

Contagious STEPPS frameworkJonah Berger as viral marketing

Discussing

Jonah Berger

Ask anything about Jonah Berger — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.