sticky. sort of.

"Our interest is in how effective ideas are constructed- what makes some ideas stick and others disappear". well obviously. otherwise this wouldn't be studied. I don't see how this is a definition though, it's more of an explanation to justify the study of "stickiness".

Stickiness is something random and uncomplicated, or something that repulses one to the point of immediate memory. Thinking back to the examples, especially the kidney example. Organ theft isn't a topic most people think of from day to day, making it stand out. It's out of the ordinary. At the same time, it's also rather disgusting. In an amusing sort of way :-). Who would think of to do something like that. It's the unconventional stories that people usually remember.

What's simple is what's remembered. Along with its simplicity, there has to be room for information. For example, the 37 grams of fat example. What people remembered was the pictures and description of the comparison of the popcorn to the bacon and burger grease. What stuck was taking the scientific complexity of the 37 grams of fat and boiling it down to a simple image of something everyone's encountered. What stuck is simple, but behind the simplicity there's an explanation (if one wanted to go study the grams of fat in daily fast foods). This way it's more believable because there's an explanation behind it. Similarly, stories that start with "friend of a friend" sticks moreso than stories without because it seems verifiable.