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Book review: ‘Click: The Magic of Instant Connections’

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Ori and Rom Brafman wrote one of the best pop psychology/business books of the decade. It’s called Sway, and I highly recommend it. Wish I could say the same for their empty, charmless follow-up, Click: The Magic of Instant Connections. I haven’t been this disappointed in a sequel since Blues Brothers 2000.

The Click jacket flap promises a “fascinating psychological investigation of the forces behind what makes us click,” but the book delivers a collection of useless self-helpy terms like “quick-set intimacy” and “click accelerators.” Sounds promising, but it’s all sizzle. The Brafmans write, “What we’ve discovered is that there are five click accelerators—‘ingredients’ or factors involved in a click.” That statement would be more accurate if they replaced “discovered” with “arbitrarily decided.”

The Details

Click: The Magic of Instant Connections
By Orl and Rom Brafman. Crown Business, $23.

While the Brafmans do have a knack for simplifying complex scientific findings for lay audiences, the findings in Click are nothing special. In discussing a study on the importance of human contact, the Brafmans write, “It turned out that those individuals who were touched by their partner were far more likely to feel a sense of connection.” Turned out? Is it news to the Brafmans that physical contact builds rapport?

If you want to read about instant connections, skip Click and revisit Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking or Michael Brooks’ Instant Rapport.

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