'A clear compassionate and much-needed book for our time' - Christian Madsbjerg author of
Look and Sensemaking Oliver Sweet is one of the world's leading business anthropologists. He
works with brands like Coke Ikea Google and Dyson as well as local councils and national
governments to reveal the secrets behind our decision making. Why do we do what we do? We
might think it's our unique personality and individual differences that guide our choices but
more often than not it's actually culture shaping our behaviour. From the ways we bring up
children to the products we buy the culture we live in creates who we are . In The Rules
That Make U s business anthropologist Oliver Sweet reveals the secrets to successful
people-watching and how we can better understand consumers voters and our relationships. His
decades-long trailblazing work uses cultural insights to help businesses governments and NGOs
achieve their goals - whether he's working with the Gates Foundation to encourage South African
men to get HIV tests helping a pet food company break into a new market in Brazil or
researching why 'nudge' techniques often backfire. Drawing on research conducted in
thirty-five countries Sweet maps culture's hidden rules: how they govern our behaviour create
our assumptions even how they help us predict the future. The Rules that Make Us gives us a
model for thinking about culture that reveals a new way of understanding our families
colleagues customers and ourselves.
