Rational Ritual

by Michael Chwe

Rational Ritual was the shortest book so far, and below will be my shortest summary yet.

Chwe uses the term common knowledge throughout the entire book. How do we explain it? Why does it work? Who makes it work? Below I’ll answer a few questions with facts from the book, in bullet form of course.

This might sound weird, but stay with me:

- when we watch something (i.e. Super Bowl ads) and know others are watching (duh, it’s the Super Bowl), and those others know others are watching and so on. It builds a web of trust, or, common knowledge among groups of people.

- If I read you should buy this toothbrush on worstwebsiteever.com and two people see it, then you probably won’t buy that toothbrush. But if you see it in a GQ magazine, and there is a quote below, from David Beckham, then you’re probably interested unless you hate David Beckham or hate white teeth.

- This is why advertising is so powerful. But, for the most part, it’s still hard to gauge the effectiveness of advertising. One thing is for certain: it works.

- Communication is successful, in this case, only when people are aware of the people who are aware of the communication (yes, I know, it sounds weird, just read it slow).

- People rarely feel stupid when they buy something that they know many other people have already done so.

- Humans fall into just a few groups. Ones who are early adopters, and willing to try anything new, with no fear of being judged or not accepted. The followers, the people who just make sure other people are doing something before they do it. And, finally, the late followers, and in some cases the really late followers. These people wait until most of their friends/family own something or take part in a particular activity/thing, before they jump in. Many psychologists have talked about this, some have five groups, some have three, some have different names than others, but the concept remains the same.

This book was good. Really good. It hammered home the power of common knowledge, and I turned the last page wanting a bit more. On to the next one.

Crazy Quote:

“The demographic variables are all in terms of percentage of the campaign’s total audience belonging to that group; for example, a typical advertiser is willing to pay 16 cents more per thousand to reach an audience which is composed of 11 percent working women as opposed to 10 percent working women.”

Favorite Quote:

“beliefs about the beliefs of others”

Should you read this book? Yes.