Chip Heath

Research Statement

Chip Heath’s research focuses on two general areas: What makes ideas succeed in the social marketplace of ideas, and how can people design messages to make them stick? How do individuals, groups, and organizations make important decisions and what mistakes do they make?

Bio

Chip Heath is the Thrive Foundation for Youth Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research examines why certain ideas - ranging from urban legends to folk medical cures, from Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to business strategy myths — survive and prosper in the social marketplace of ideas. A few years back Chip designed a course, now a popular elective at Stanford, that asked whether it would be possible to use the principles of naturally sticky ideas to design messages that would be more effective. The material from that course, How to Make Ideas Stick, has been taught to hundreds of students including managers, teachers, nonprofit leaders, doctors, journalists, venture capitalists, product designers, and film producers.

Chip is the coauthor (along with his brother, Dan) of a book titled Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, published by Random House in January 2007.

Chip’s research has appeared in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Cognitive Psychology, Journal of Consumer Behavior, Strategic Management Journal, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. Popular accounts of his research have appeared in Scientific American, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, Business Week, Psychology Today, and Vanity Fair, NPR, and a National Geographic television show.

Chip has taught courses on Organizational Behavior, Negotiation, Strategy, International Strategy, and Social Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining Stanford, Professor Heath taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He received his BS in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and his PhD in Psychology from Stanford.

Academic Degrees

• PhD in Psychology, Stanford, 1991
• BS in Industrial Engineering, Texas A&M, 1986

Academic Appointments

• At Stanford University since 2000
• Fuqua School, Duke, 1997-2000
• University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 1991-1997

Teaching

Degree Courses

2017-18

OB 568: How to Make Ideas Stick

This class will explore the properties shared by ideas that stick with people and change the way they think and act. The course is based on the framework in the book Made to Stick and focuses on hands-on exercises that will teach you how to...

OB 671: Social Psychology of Organizations

This seminar focuses on social psychological theories and research relevant to organizational behavior. It reviews topics in micro-organizational behavior, linking these to foundations in cognitive and social psychology and sociology. Topics...

2016-17

OB 568: How to Make Ideas Stick

This class will explore the properties shared by ideas that stick with people and change the way they think and act. The course is based on the framework in the book Made to Stick and focuses on hands-on exercises that will teach you how to...

OB 671: Social Psychology of Organizations

This seminar focuses on social psychological theories and research relevant to organizational behavior. It reviews the current research topics in micro-organizational behavior, linking these to foundations in cognitive and social psychology and...

Other Teaching

Customer-Focused Innovation

Executive Program for Growing Companies

In the Media

Big Thinkers, Big Ideas: Chip Heath

APQC, March 25, 2015

Reinventing Medical School

The New England Journal of Medicine, June 3, 2012

In the New England Journal of Medicine, the Stanford GSB's Chip Heath and the School of Medicine's Charles G. Prober make the case for online medical school instruction in addition to classroom interaction. Their goal: "education that wrings more value out of the unyielding asset of time."

Insights by Stanford Business

writtenMake Your Next Panel Discussion More Compelling

April 26, 2017

Success depends on strong preparation, concrete examples, and good connection with your audience.

writtenChip and Dan Heath: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

March 26, 2013

In their book, Chip and Dan Heath lay out a path for making better decisions.

writtenWhy Do Some Ideas Spread?

March 11, 2013

Can any message be shaped to spread? A scholar offers tips to increase the odds.

writtenWhy Seeking Common Ground Can Backfire

June 1, 2009

Research shows that conversations between people seeking common ground can influence which ideas and people gain cultural prominence.

writtenThe Tipping Point of "Cool"

December 1, 2007

Research shows that popular products can quickly lose their cache if they become favored by the masses.

writtenDiscredited "Mozart Effect" Remains Music to American Ears

February 1, 2005

Researchers suggest the myth that listening to classical music boosts intelligence grew from anxiety about early childhood education.