Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life

by Rory Sutherland

Alchemy, precisely because it is not an exact science, has always been rife with charlatanry, and we should be on our guard for this. Many of the remedies proposed by people in advertising and design are wrong, and many of the findings of behavioural scientists have already been or will be proved wrong. Some parts of this book are also undoubtedly wrong – I am conscious that I have written this book from an incredibly optimistic perspective, but my argument is not that alchemy is always reliable, ethical or beneficial. Far from it – it is simply that we should not recoil from testing alchemical solutions because they do not fit with our reductionist ideas about how the world works. The purpose of this book is to persuade the reader that alchemy exists whether we like it or not, and that it is possible to use it for good; besides, if people are more aware of its existence, they will be better at spotting its misuses.*