Further Reading: The Share Trigger

Essential Reads

"Contagious: Why Things Catch On" by Jonah Berger The foundational text for this chapter. Berger's book expands the STEPPS framework with extensive case studies from marketing, products, and content — explaining each element in depth with both research evidence and practical application. This is essential reading for any creator serious about understanding shareability.

"The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" by Erving Goffman Goffman's classic sociological work on impression management provides the theoretical foundation for identity signaling. His "dramaturgical analysis" — the idea that social interaction is a performance where we manage the impressions others have of us — is directly applicable to understanding why people share: every share is a public performance of identity.

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini Cialdini's six principles of influence — reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity — overlap with and complement Berger's STEPPS. Particularly relevant: social proof (the "Public" element of STEPPS) and scarcity (a driver of Social Currency). Understanding influence psychology deepens the shareability framework.

Going Deeper: Research and Academic Sources

Berger, J., & Milkman, K. L. (2012). "What makes online content viral?" Journal of Marketing Research, 49(2), 192-205. The empirical backbone of this chapter. Berger and Milkman analyzed nearly 7,000 New York Times articles to identify what predicted sharing. Their key finding — that high-arousal emotions (awe, anger, anxiety) predict sharing more than valence (positive vs. negative) — is foundational for understanding emotional sharing.

The New York Times Customer Insight Group. (2011). "The Psychology of Sharing: Why Do People Share Online?" The large-scale survey study cited in section 9.2, identifying five primary motivations for sharing: bringing valuable content to others, defining themselves, growing relationships, self-fulfillment, and supporting causes. One of the most comprehensive studies of sharing motivation.

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books. The foundational text on impression management theory. While written decades before social media, Goffman's framework applies with remarkable precision to online sharing behavior — each post, share, and like is a performance on the "stage" of social media.

Marwick, A. E., & boyd, d. (2011). "I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience." New Media & Society, 13(1), 114-133. Explores "context collapse" — the phenomenon where social media merges distinct social audiences (friends, family, colleagues, strangers) into a single undifferentiated audience. This complicates identity signaling because a share visible to friends might be inappropriate for colleagues. Understanding context collapse helps explain why some people share less than expected.

Barasch, A., & Berger, J. (2014). "Broadcasting and narrowcasting: How audience size affects what people share." Journal of Marketing Research, 51(3), 286-299. Reveals that sharing behavior changes depending on whether the share is public (broadcast to many) or private (sent to one person). People share more self-enhancing content publicly but more useful content privately. This research directly informs the distinction between public sharing (identity signaling) and DM sharing (practical value).

Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). "Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 7313-7318. Documents how moral-emotional language in social media posts increases their diffusion — each moral-emotional word increases sharing by approximately 20%. Provides the empirical foundation for understanding why outrage content spreads so effectively (and why dark shares are so tempting for creators).

For Creators Specifically

"Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath The Heath brothers' framework for making ideas memorable and shareable — SUCCESs (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) — complements Berger's STEPPS. Where Berger focuses on why people share, Heath and Heath focus on what makes ideas stick in memory. Together, they provide a comprehensive framework for creating content that's both memorable (Chapter 6) and shareable.

Paddy Galloway's shareability analyses (YouTube channel) Galloway frequently analyzes why specific videos get shared at high rates, breaking down the psychological mechanisms behind viral spread. His creator-oriented analysis applies academic concepts in practical, accessible terms.

Brendan Kane — "One Million Followers" and "Hook Point" Kane's work focuses on designing content for maximum shareability in the social media era. His "Hook Point" framework addresses how to capture attention in 3 seconds and motivate sharing — a practical complement to the STEPPS framework.

Videos and Online Resources

Jonah Berger's talks (various platforms) Berger regularly presents updated versions of his STEPPS research at conferences and in interviews. His more recent work on "The Catalyst" (2020) extends into understanding how to change minds — relevant for creators making persuasive or educational content.

Veritasium — "Clickbait is Unreasonably Effective" (YouTube) Derek Muller's analysis of why clickbait works (and when it crosses the line) provides a creator's perspective on the tension between shareability design and ethical content creation. Connects to the curiosity gap discussion in Chapter 5 and the dark shares discussion in section 9.5.

CGP Grey — "This Video Will Make You Angry" (YouTube) Grey's meta-analysis of how outrage content spreads through networks is a masterful demonstration of the concepts in sections 9.5 (dark shares) and the upcoming Chapter 10 (network effects). The video itself is designed to be shared — an example of the content practicing what it teaches.

Social proof — Cialdini's principle that people use others' behavior as a guide for their own. In sharing: when people see content being shared widely, they're more likely to share it themselves. This creates a cascade effect (explored in Chapter 10) where initial shares beget more shares.

Context collapse — When your social media audience (friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances) merges into one undifferentiated group. This can suppress sharing: a video that's funny to share with friends might be embarrassing if your boss sees it. Understanding context collapse helps explain why DM sharing often exceeds public sharing.

The mere exposure effect revisited — From Chapter 6: repeated exposure increases liking. Triggers (section 9.7) essentially create involuntary mere exposure by activating memory of your content repeatedly in daily life. The trigger mechanism connects memory science (Chapter 6) to sharing psychology (Chapter 9).

Dunbar's number — Robin Dunbar's finding that humans maintain approximately 150 stable social relationships. This limits the effective sharing network for any individual — and helps explain why "weak ties" (Chapter 10) matter more than strong ties for viral spread.