The Price of Nice: Why Comfort Keeps Us Stuck and 4 Actions for Real Change

"What's wrong with nice?!" A simple and powerful question. It demands we interrogate the unspoken rules that shape our lives, often without our realizing it.

"It costs nothing to be nice!" What a travesty of logic. Niceness is not free--it comes at a steep price. It's a velvet glove over an iron fist, stifling dissent, prioritizing comfort over progress, and conditioning us to accept the status quo. Niceness is one of the most insidious social constructs, keeping us compliant, silent, and complicit in inequity. If we don't question it, we stay exactly where power wants us--agreeable, easy to manage, and stuck.

The Price of Nice is about breaking free. Amira Barger deconstructs our cultural obsession with niceness, exposes its hidden costs, and offers a practical framework for real change. With sharp analysis and personal insight, she helps readers disrupt the narratives that keep them stuck and reclaim their power.

Guided by four dimensions rooted in social psychology--think, feel, do, revisit--this book offers immediate, adaptable practices for creating change. Because breaking free isn't only what you know--it's what you do next.

If you're tired of "good enough," this book will challenge you, change you, and call you to more.

Author: Amira Barger
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 10/28/2025
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9798890571137

About the Author
Amira Barger is the award-winning executive vice president of communications and head of DEI advisory at Edelman, one of the largest communications and public relations firms in the world. She is also a professor at California State University, East Bay, teaching marketing, communications, and change management. She holds a BA in marketing from Vanguard University and an MBA from LeTourneau University, and she has received DEI certifications from Cornell University, University of South Florida, and SDS Global Enterprises Inc. She currently resides in Benicia, California.