This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
Many of us like to think that we're not affected by peer pressure.
Come on.
What's your problem?
Great.
We believe we're independent thinkers, that our choices are our own, that our values and preferences are inherent to our personalities, not the whims or wishes of others.
It turns out reality is a bit more complicated everywhere in life.
At work, at school, in a big stadium with thousands of other people, at home, in the privacy of our own bedrooms.
It turns out our behavior is shaped by the judgment, norms, and actions of other people.
Sometimes we can feel these influences, but more often than not, they are so subtle, we dont even notice their existence.
Today we bring you a favorite episode from 2016 that looks more closely at how these forces act on us.
Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the author of the book invisible the hidden forces that shape behavior.
Jonah, welcome to hidden Brain.
Thanks so much for having me.
Companies often pay celebrities to hawk their merchandise, so I often see athletes wearing clothes with a Nike swoosh.
Tiffany apparently once paid Anne Hathaway $750,000 to wear its jewelry at the oscars.
But a few years ago, you tell the story of how Abercrombie and Fitch made an unusual offer to the stars of Jersey Shore.
What was that offer?