The New York Times interviews HI founder, highlights FTW!
On July 25, The New York Times published "Adding Punch to Influence Public Opinion," an article profiling the Harmony Institute, and highlighting its inaugural publication, Net Neutrality For The Win. The article introduced Harmony's mission to the general public, while offering insight into its unique methodology.
"We're breaking ground here," Harmony Institute Founder and Director John S. Johnson told The Times. While Harmony maintains that it's clear "persuasion is inseparable from entertainment," the Institute is undertaking the real issue of "whether it works," that is the application of behavioral science in the creation of entertainment.
“If it is conscious and if it has rigor, it’s much more effective,” maintained Johnson.
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Harmony featured in Science
The Institute's work was recently mentioned in the August 2009 edition of the world's foremost scientific journal, Science.
Science summarized the Institute's innovative entertainment technique, "adapted to the YouTube age," by reporting on Harmony's latest "[collaboration] with the creators of popular video programs on the Web to develop scripts that show people conserving energy and water and considering how their consumption choices might affect the planet."