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For a case study in unexpectedness, consider the Japanese company that became Sony. After World War II, the firm was struggling, when the company's lead technologist proposed a new product: a pocketable radio. That was nearly insane. At the time a radio was a piece of furniture. But the suggestion worked. As a product, yes, but before that as an idea. Cognitive science tells us that the human brain is wired to perceive patterns and is drawn to aberrations--a radio small enough to fit in my pocket?
Behavioral economics theorizes that when we have a gap in our knowledge, we strive to resolve it. Imagine the engineers immediately asking, A pocket-size radio, how would we even start to build one? Just as important, though, the notion of a tiny radio meshed with Sony's business: a maker of electronics. Gratuitous surprise may catch our attention briefly, but it doesn't hold our interest.
Everywhere the Heath brothers look, it seems, there is a lesson to be learned. The Nature Conservancy gives tracts of land spiffy names like the Mount Hamilton Wilderness--a better ring than "1,875 square miles of environmentally critical ecosystem"--and donations perk up. Chalk that up to the power of being concrete. The Texas department of transportation casts Dallas Cowboys and Houston Astros in testosterone-soaked ads telling drivers "Don't mess with Texas," and roadside litter drops 29% in a year. Consider it a score for an emotional appeal to identity--a way of getting litterbugs to believe that real men don't throw beer cans out the window.
Then there is Jared. Jared has it all. His idea is simple (weight loss), unexpected (weight loss by eating fast food), concrete (weight loss by eating fast-food subs), credible (his own account of weight loss by eating fast-food subs), emotional (his own triumphant account of weight loss by eating fast-food subs)--and a story (his own triumphant account of weight loss by walking to Subway twice a day and eating fast-food subs).
It's common sense that stories hook people on ideas--Who doesn't like a tale?--but again the Heath brothers back up their claims with scientific findings. In one experiment described, a group read a story in which John put on his sweatshirt before going out for a jog, and another group read a story in which John took off his sweatshirt before heading out. Two sentences later, up popped a reference to the sweatshirt. People who had read about John taking off his sweatshirt spent more time over this new bit of information. Mentally, they had left the sweatshirt behind. In other words, when we hear a story, we create in our minds a simulation of what's happening. Do you walk down the street to Subway just because Jared did? No. But hearing his story does rehearse you to follow in his footsteps.