Today’s consumers are savvier than ever. In this age of constant media bombardment, it may feel harder and harder to stand out from the noise enough to actually reach people. However, there is one foolproof way to get noticed. According to a 2012 Nielson study, 92 percent of respondents say they trust earned media, “such as word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family,” more than any form of advertising. If you can get your customers talking about you, more custom

In 1543, Polish astronomer and mathematician Copernicus published a then-radical theory, carefully timed just before his death: the Renaissance-era scientist had come to the conclusion that the Earth rotated around the sun. At the time, the implication that the Earth did not sit at the center of the universe was a deeply disturbing one. However, later on, this belief would prove extremely useful—for instance, when we began developing space-worthy crafts with which to explore

If you’ve taken a psych class in the past four decades, you’ve probably encountered some version of the following story: In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo recruited 21 male Stanford students of perfectly sound mind and body to portray either prisoners or guards—decided on a coin flip—for a two-week scientific study into prison psychology. Although the “guards” were instructed not to become physical with the “prisoners,” the guards quickly turned sadistic and the prisoners

As Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman says, frequently we underestimate the role of luck in our successes. To illustrate this, consider the case of a Corbin, Kentucky gas station owner named Harlan Sanders. One day, while working in his station on U.S. Highway 25, he happened to hear a customer complain, “Damn! There ain’t a decent place around here to eat!” Sanders, who had bounced from job to job for years, would later remember, “I got to thinking. One

We all know the story of the New Coke debacle—or at least, we think we do. It’s one of the most notorious corporate blunders of the last century. ‘What group of geniuses could look at a brand like Coca-Cola and decide to reconfigure the formula?’ we ask, rhetorically. ‘What were they thinking?’ After all, what’s the most beloved cola on the planet? If you’re like most people, your answer would probably be Coke. And you’d be right—and wrong. As a Pepsi TV campaign once famousl