In Invisible Influence, the New York Times bestselling author of Contagious explores the subtle influences that affect the decisions we make – from what we buy, to the careers we choose, to what we eat.

If you're like most people, you think your individual tastes and opinions drive your choices and behaviours. You wear a certain jacket because you liked how it looked. You picked a particular career because you found it interesting. The notion that our choices are driven by our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong.

Without our realizing it, other people's behaviour has a huge influence on everything we do at every moment of our lives, from the mundane to the momentous. Even strangers have an impact on our judgments and decisions: our attitudes toward a welfare policy shift if we're told it is supported by Democrats versus Republicans (even though the policy is the same). But social influence doesn't just lead us to do the same things as others. In some cases we imitate others around us. But in other cases we avoid particular choices or behaviours because other people are doing them. We stop listening to a band because they go mainstream. We skip buying the minivan because we don't want to look like a soccer mom.

By understanding how social influence works, we can decide when to resist and when to embrace it – and learn how we can use this knowledge to exercise more control over our own behaviour.