Book Review: The Power of Habits (Chapter 7 and 8)

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Today, i would like to make chapter review from the book i was reading (read: The Power of Habits). These are the previous review Part 1 (chapter 1, 2, 3) and  Part 2 (Chapter 4, 5, 6). The chapter i'd like to review are the chapter 7 (which is part of the part 2) and the part 3 which is divided into two chapters. Be ready for yourself because this is gonna be a long review ~

Chapter 7: HOW TARGET KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT BEFORE YOU DO [When Companies Predict (and Manipulate) Habits]

The author tells about the habits of people's buying and people's listening to something.

When we bought commercial products like groceries and music, these are our habits and those habits are predictable. 

Have you ever wondered why supermarket puts healthy and fresh food near the entrance store? It's the trick. If we start our shopping sprees by loading up on healthy stuff, we're much more likely to buy unhealthy foods when we encounter them later on. Also, people's buying habits are more likely to change when they go through a major life event. For instance, when woman got pregnant, she will change her buying habits, like buying a pregnant milk to be her new buying habits.

Now, we move to people's listening habits. When we like a new music, that music must be have been familiar to us. This happens because our brains crave for familiarity. For example, the Hey, Ya! song by Outkast became familiar because the radio station put the song repeatedly in between the song from Maroon 5 and Justin Timberlake which are already popular. The key is the radio station put the unfamiliar song in between the familiar songs.

PART 3 - The Habits of Societies

Chapter 8: SADDLEBACK CHURCH AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT (How Movements Happen)

The author provides a story from Rosa Parks who was an activist. Rosa was arrested because she refused the order of giving up her bus seat in the colored section to a white passenger. The book argues that Rosa Parks was the catalyst for the movement because of her exceptionally well-connected placement in the local community. She actively participated in the NAACP, church, youth organizations, botanical club, and volunteer groups. This means that Rosa had many networks from her organizations she participated in. Her friends from the local community spread this issue and they were fighting for Rosa's rights of being discriminated. 

The Parks' case made the author states that there are 3 parts of social movements:

1) the movement begins with the social habits of close friendship.

2) It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together. 

3) the movement endures because the leaders give participants new habits, a new identity, and a feeling of ownership over the movement.

Finally, we reach the end of this blog. Do you feel tired reading this long page? Well, you must be, but you obtained some informations about habits. I hope this could be useful for you. Thank you guys for reading! Catch you later!