How Music Props You Up. La psicología “perversa” de la publicidad. Cada día, el consumidor está expuesto a entre 3.000 y 10.000 marcas a través de spots televisivos, vallas publicitarias, banners online y múltiples formatos publicitarios. El consumidor está literalmente inundado de publicidad y por eso las marcas recurren a algunos “trucos” psicológicos para llamar la atención sobre sus productos y ganarse su confianza. Algunas de estas “artimañas” psicológicas son puestas al descubierto por BuySellAds en una infografía. El “matrimonio” entre psicología y publicidad se remonta a finales del siglo XIX , cuando Harlow Gale decidió enviar un cuestionario a varios negocios de Minnesota con el objetivo de estudiar cómo los clientes procesaban la publicidad.
Sólo el 10% de las empresas respondieron al cuestionario, pero muy pronto cambiaría su parecer sobre la psicología aplicada a la publicidad. Ya en los años 20, John B. Watson aseguró que la publicidad efectiva apelaba en realidad a tres emociones innatas: el amor, el miedo y la ira. . - Los descuentos. "Behavior Architects" Tackle India's Social Problems. The bureaucrats running Mumbai’s suburban rail network had a problem: Commuters and people living and working close to train stations were taking shortcuts across the tracks. This reckless behavior was causing 6,000 deaths in the metropolitan area every year. The transit authorities asked FinalMile, a local marketing consultant, to find a solution. FinalMile had experience in applying behavioral economics to sell consumer goods; the city hoped it could use similar techniques to save lives.
FinalMile would do the work for free. The four founders of FinalMile, who among them have degrees in business administration, engineering, and economics, have worked with Hindustan Unilever (HUVR:IN), Philips Electronics (PHG), Merck (MRK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and others. Since the success at Wadala, the national rail system has commissioned FinalMile to improve safety at India’s 16,000 unmanned rail crossings, where motorists court disaster by racing to cross before trains pass by. Data: U.S. How To Make Better Decisions. Meredith Galante/Business Insider Every day we're faced with decisions, from the trivial to extremely important. Too often we simply go with our gut feeling and do what feels right.
The problem with that approach is that it leaves us open to a variety of behavioral and psychological biases that affect the way we think and can lead us to make the wrong choices. By being aware of of the things that lead us down the wrong path and some ways to get it right, we can make better, more rational decisions. Searching for the "best" option is usually a waste of time. People put too much value on having a wide variety of choices. In fact, according to researchers Simona Botti from the London Business School and Christopher Hsee of the University of Chicago we spend so much time seeking out options that it outweighs any benefit of having additional choices. When researching options, set a time limit for yourself, and make sure you're not just procrastinating to avoid the decision. Would You Recognize Yourself With A Completely Symmetrical Face? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Right? Even though everyone’s charmed by wildly different kinds of physical characteristics (thank goodness!)
, that hasn’t stopped our old friend science from stepping in and asserting truths about what we are biologically inclined to find appealing. Julian Wolkenstein was intrigued that those with symmetrical faces were widely seen as more attractive, and set out to consider the idea in a series of portraits that mirror both the left and right halves of an individual’s visage, resulting in two often quite different depictions of the same person. “I like messing around with facial particulars,” Wolkenstein tells Co.Design (a pleasure he also recently pursued in a project for the Museum of Helsinki’s Postiche Collection).
In order to begin the unique de-and-reconstruction, he had to select his subjects. Wolkenstein is still exploring the concept of Echoism, now with a way, way larger field. (H/T notcot) Just Because You’re Lonely, Doesn’t Mean You’re Ready. The divorce rate—as high as it is—isn’t an accurate barometer of the failure of romantic relationships because the vast majority of them end without there ever having been a formal marriage. That makes it virtually impossible to even guestimate what the relationship failure rate really is. There are many reasons that fledgling relationships don’t take full flight and never make it to that happy sunset 50 or 60 years later. And, like most things we write about in this space, there’s a direct correlation to grief and to recovery from loss.
This is especially true when the recovery component is missing. The absence of recovery sustains the divorce and break-up rate at painfully high levels. Interacting with thousands of people who were grieving the end of a romantic relationship, it was inevitable that we’d observe some patterns. What emerged from those interactions is the clear and obvious fact that most people at some point after a break-up start to feel lonely and amorously inclined. Signing forms at the top, not the bottom, may make people more honest. Simply by signing documents at the start rather than end, people might be encouraged to behave more honestly. The effect was demonstrated in a series of staged and real-world experiments, which included moving signature lines from bottom to top on car insurance reports.
On average, that small tweak resulted in a 3,200km difference in distance driven claimed on new policy forms, hinting at what's possible with just a slight nudge to be ethical. "Many people want to be good. Most people care about being good. But they need a reminder to help them sometimes," said Lisa Shu, a Northwestern University psychologist and lead author of the new study, published 27 August in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Other research suggests that signing one's name -- not merely printing it, but inscribing your unique, personal autograph -- acts, in the words of University of Alberta psychologists Keri Kettle and Gerald Haubl, as "a general self-identity prime.
" Journal of Consumer Psychology - The consumer psychology of brands. Abstract This article presents a consumer-psychology model of brands that integrates empirical studies and individual constructs (such as brand categorization, brand affect, brand personality, brand symbolism and brand attachment, among others) into a comprehensive framework. The model distinguishes three levels of consumer engagement (object-centered, self-centered and social) and five processes (identifying, experiencing, integrating, signifying and connecting). Pertinent psychological constructs and empirical findings are presented for the constructs within each process. The article concludes with research ideas to test the model using both standard and consumer-neuroscience methods. Keywords Consumer psychology; Brand; Neuroscience; Brand extensions; Brand experience Over the past two decades, we have learned a lot about the consumer judgments of brands and the processes that underlie specific brand-related phenomena, from brand extensions to global branding to brand equity.
10 Tips for Surviving Breakups. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try certain connections are just not meant to be. Breaking up is hard to do, but it's healthier than staying in an emotionally vacant relationship out of the fear of being single. Here are some tips to get you through the rough times and help you to enjoy this temporary juncture in your journey through life. Adjust your attitude. "Single" is not a bad word. Celebrate your new status by changing your focus and doing things for yourself. Grieving is important. The Great DSM Hoax. I have been reading Marilyn Wedge’s excellent Pills Are Not for Preschoolers and it moved me to write again about the extent to which the DSM, the “diagnostic manual” used by the psychotherapeutic professional class, is an utter hoax.
You may be familiar with complaints surrounding the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM as those complaints have mounted in recent months in connection with the imminent appearance of the next version of the DSM, the DSM-V, which is scheduled to appear in 2013. In that volume a slew of new “mental disorders,” created out of whole cloth for profit, will appear. Many people, including thousands of mental health professionals, have pushed back. But too few are willing to call the whole thing the hoax it is. The DSM is a disease-mongering naming game where collections of disparate painful thoughts and feelings and unwanted or distressing behaviors are given profit-seeking labels. Wow! Push Me and I’ll Resist: Reactance Theory - Stephan Dahl. Reactance Theory is a powerful theory to show just how valuable understanding theoretical concepts in everyday marketing activity is.
The theory is heavily used in Social Marketing and also applicable to other marketing situations, for example, sales encounters. The basic idea is that if a perceived behavioural freedom is removed (for example by government legislation, warning signs or pushy sales tactics), the result is that the person who is being pushed will react by adopting or strengthening an opposing view or attitude. An example: I recently tried to cancel my mobile phone subscription with and get a code to move my number to a different provider. I’m out of contract, and cancelling it and moving the number was my right – or behavioural freedom. To do this, I had to chat to an advisor, who constantly refused to give me the code and instead came back with different offers to keep me with the company.
Is this effect powerful? So how can marketers prevent reactance? The Honest Truth About Respondent Dishonesty. Anyone involved in survey research today should keep abreast of the lessons of behavioral economics. However, it can be challenging at best to keep up on the latest academic research. Luckily for us, Dan Ariely, one of the luminaries of behavioral economics, has written several books that are accessible and highly entertaining guides to the lessons of contemporary experimental psychology. Ariely, who published “Predictably Irrational” in 2008 and “The Upside of Irrationality” in 2010, recently released “The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.” I just finished listening to the audio version of “Honest Truth,” read with a British accent by Simon Jones – which, as Ariely jokes at the end of the recording, is itself somewhat dishonest since Ariely himself has a prominent Israeli accent.
Dan Ariely This book is an important and enjoyable read for anyone who cares about social science. Let me point out a few of the lessons that jumped out at me as having particular relevance in the world of research. Habits: Why We Do What We Do - HBR IdeaCast. An interview with Charles Duhigg, reporter for The New York Times and author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Download this podcast JUSTIN FOX: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Justin Fox. And I’m talking today with Charles Duhigg, a reporter for The New York Times and author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. He’s also a graduate of Harvard Business School, for whatever that’s worth. Charles, welcome to IdeaCast. CHARLES DUHIGG: Thank you so much for having me.
JUSTIN FOX: So what’s such a big deal about habits? CHARLES DUHIGG: Well, habits are a big deal not only in our lives, because about 40% to 45% of what we do every day sort of feels like a decision, but it’s actually habit. JUSTIN FOX: Going back to the individual level for a minute, the habits are formed in a different part of the brain than memories, right?
CHARLES DUHIGG: Or at least the unconscious thought. CHARLES DUHIGG: Right. Why We Lie. The High Art of Handling Problem People. The walk-in medical clinic was about to close for the day when Susan Biali got a call from one of her longtime patients. Could the doctor please hang in a bit longer? The caller was feeling very ill and needed to see her immediately. An exhausted Biali extended her already burdensome day and waited for the patient to arrive. Some time later, the woman sauntered in; she was perfectly fine. She just needed a prescription refill. "She totally lied to me," the Vancouver doctor recalls. Eventually, she identified what set her off: "You think you're in an innocuous situation—a typical doctor-patient encounter. Ever wonder how an encounter goes so quickly awry?
It doesn't take a sociopath; anyone can be difficult in a heartbeat. Experience motivates most of us to avoid or minimize interacting with such people. In the Hothouse at Home vs. In dealing with a difficult person, the setting is everything. In a marriage, she says, it's often advisable to exit a conversation. The Hostile. Digital Chit Chat. One of the many reasons for the popularity of Facebook is that it has made gossip much more accessible. Indeed, we no longer need to hide at the end of the corridor or shut our office door: it is simply enough to log on and chat. Moreover, we can now passively contribute to gossip by reading other people's updates, feeds, and tweets. Unsurprisingly, there is now a big quest for making sense of these data. Text analytics (coding, organizing, and interpreting qualitative or unsurtuctured data) is the latest obsession of the data miners. Digital marketing has long attempted to produce smart algorithms for decoding gossip.
This obsession for decoding digital chit chat has now reached the more conservative and technophobic world of HR. Furthermore, given that 70% of employees are unhappy wit their jobs—in most cases, because they hate their bosses—it is not easy for managers to resist the temptation of analyzing employees' conversations to work out what they feel. The Fantasy of Perfect Love. TV's unintended consequences -- good and bad : Cognitive Daily. 10 Simple Postures That Boost Performance. Psychological research suggests simple actions can project power, persuade others, increase empathy, boost cognitive performance and more… We tend to think of body language as something that expresses our internal states to the outside world. But it also works the other way around: the position of our body also influences our mind. As the following psychological research shows, how we move can drive both thoughts and feelings and this can boost performance. 1.
Pose for power If you want to feel more powerful then adopt a powerful posture. 2. Tensing up your muscles can help increase your willpower. 3. If you’re stuck on a problem which needs persistence then try crossing your arms. 4. If crossing your arms doesn’t work then try lying down. 5. While you’re lying down, why not have a nap? Brooks & Lack (2005) compared 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute naps to find the best length. 6.
The way people’s hands cut through the air while they talk is fascinating. 7. 8. 9. 10. Embodied cognition. Why We Buy: How to Avoid 10 Costly Cognitive Biases. Ia600204.us.archive.org/13/items/handbookofmathem017893mbp/handbookofmathem017893mbp.pdf. Mathematical psychology. Www.abcbodybuilding.com/hull.pdf. Hull (1935) Data Visualization for Human Perception by Stephen Few. Gestalt principles of form perception by Mads Soegaard. Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world. Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness | Magazine.