Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World

I thought the title seemed a bit overreaching when I first read about this book, but I was hopeful. Wouldn’t it be lovely to discover that something as simple as peer pressure could actually transform the world?

Of course, as I had anticipated, the title was too good to be true. Rosenberg offers up story after story of ways that peer pressure is working to improve the world. Reducing rates of smoking. Cutting AIDS levels. Improving calculus scores in African-American men. Improving rates of infant mortality. All happy stories.

A good book, yes. A cure-all? No.

I suppose by now I should approach any book that offers quick fixes with skepticism instead of starry-eyed eagerness. As should we all. Still one can always dream….

Interesting book about how social groups affect society - for worse or better - with surprising results. Makes one think about how to apply these techniques to one's own life.

Essentlially a collection of stories that show how peer pressure - or changes in social norms - bring about change in society. Fun, but nothing unexpected.

In the style of "The Tipping Point" or "Freakonomics," Rosenberg delivers a groundbreaking book that examines how peer pressure can transform the world.