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Idea Habitats: How the Prevalence of Environmental Cues Influences the Success of Ideas
Author(s) -
Berger Jonah A.,
Heath Chip
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_10
Subject(s) - habitat , rumor , competition (biology) , newspaper , set (abstract data type) , class (philosophy) , subject (documents) , recall , ecology , test (biology) , slang , empirical research , psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , epistemology , sociology , computer science , biology , linguistics , artificial intelligence , political science , philosophy , public relations , media studies , programming language , library science
We investigate 1 factor that influences the success of ideas or cultural representations by proposing that they have a habitat, that is, a set of environmental cues that encourages people to recall and transmit them. We test 2 hypotheses: (a) fluctuation: the success of an idea will vary over time with fluctuations in its habitat, and (b) competition: ideas with more prevalent habitats will be more successful. Four studies use subject ratings and data from newspapers to provide correlational support for our 2 hypotheses, with a negative factoid, positive rumor, catchphrases, and variants of a proverb. Three additional experimental studies manipulate the topic of actual conversations and find empirical support for our theory, with catchphrases, proverbs, and slang. The discussion examines how habitat prevalence applies to a more extensive class of ideas and suggests how habitats may influence the process by which ideas evolve.