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This is a book about what really attracts the attention of the buyer and makes him meekly give up his hard earned money for unnecessary and of little use.
A very entertaining excerpt from Buyology: An Exciting Journey into the Brain of the Modern Consumer by Martin Lindstrom.
In 2004, Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobe, while walking along Madison Avenue in New York, noticed something out of the ordinary. He saw headphones of the purest white color (you probably remember that the color of most headphones in those days was not original, that is, it was black). They were everywhere: they flaunted on their heads, dangled from the cabbage soup, hung on the chest, stuck out of the pockets, bags and backpacks of passers-by. “It seemed like I saw people with white headphones at every intersection, and I thought then: 'God! Has it really happened? ”To quote Jobs, who had recently launched his company's most successful product, the iPod, on the market.
Of course, someone may think that iPods (and the already cult white headphones worn by everyone and everywhere) are just a passing hobby, a toy for a day. Someone says they made a revolution. But from the point of view of neurobiology, what Jobs saw was nothing more than a victory for the area of our brain associated with mirror neurons.
In 1992, Italian researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti, together with a group of scientists in the city of Parma (Italy), began to study the work of the brain of macaques in order to understand how the motor function of the body is carried out. In particular, they studied a special area of the monkey's brain, called the F5 zone, or the premotor cortex, in which activity was observed when the monkeys performed some movement, such as picking up a nut. An interesting fact is that the neurons of this part of the brain became active not only when the monkeys themselves reached for the nut, but also when they saw that other monkeys stretch their paws towards the nut. This came as a surprise to scientists, because it was believed that neurons in the F5 zone usually do not respond to visual stimuli.
Once, on a hot summer day, Rizzolatti, together with his colleagues, witnessed an amazing picture: one of his graduates, returning after lunch to the laboratory with ice cream in his hands, noticed the greedy gaze of a macaque. As soon as the student brought the ice cream to his lips and took a bite of it, the computer monitor with a characteristic sound instantly highlighted the increase in the activity of zone F5.
The macaque sat without moving: it did not reach out its paws for the ice cream, did not lick it, and there was nothing in its paws. Observing how the student brings ice cream to his mouth, the monkey mentally reproduced this action.
This amazing phenomenon was eventually called by Rizzolatti the action of "mirror neurons" - neurons that were activated when primates performed an action or watched how this action was performed. “It took us several years to believe in our discovery,” the scientist said.
However, not all the actions of the student or other monkeys activated mirror neurons in the experimental monkey's brain. The team of scientists was able to determine that the mirror neurons of macaques reacted to the so-called "targeted actions", that is, actions aimed at a specific object, for example: pick up a nut, bring ice cream to your mouth. These actions were contrasted with all the other actions that were habitual and did not affect the monkeys in any way: for example, walking around the room or standing with arms crossed.
However, does the same thing happen to the human brain? Do we also imitate the actions of other people? Of course, for obvious ethical reasons, scientists cannot insert microelectrodes into the human brain. However, with the help of MRI and modern electroencephalography, it is presumably possible to establish that the frontal and parietal lobes of the human brain contain mirror neurons, since it is these areas that are activated when a person performs certain actions or observing the actions of other people. The existence of mirror neurons in the human brain today is beyond doubt. One distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California said, "The discovery of mirror neurons is as important to psychology as the discovery of DNA is to biology."
Have you ever wondered why, when you see your favorite baseball player hitting the ball in the middle of the ninth inning, your hand clenches itself into a fist, imitating the movement of an athlete? Or why, when your country's national football team scores a goal, do you throw your hands up? Why, when in a movie you see a heroine ready to burst into tears, tears also come to your eyes? And how do you explain the flow of energy when Clint Eastwood or Vin Diesel deal with the villains in the film, which lasts another hour after the end of the film? And the feeling of aesthetic admiration that overwhelms you at the sight of a ballerina or virtuoso pianist playing a classical piece? The reason for this is mirror neurons. The response of our brain is similar to the response of monkeys in the Rizzo-latti experiment: by observing the actions of other people, Whether it's a penalty kick or a great arpeggio played on a Steinway grand piano, it's like we're doing it ourselves. As if observing and acting are one and the same.
The specificity of the action of mirror neurons explains why we often unwittingly imitate the behavior of other people. This innate reaction manifests itself even in infancy: it is worth showing the tongue to the baby, and most likely he will do the same in response. When people speak to us in a whisper, we also begin to speak more quietly. We walk more slowly around older people. If on the plane with us a person speaks with a pronounced accent, we, without knowing it, begin to imitate him. I remember my trip to Moscow during the Cold War era: I was struck then by the colorlessness of the city. The sky was gray, the houses were gray, and even the faces of passers-by seemed unusually pale to me. But most of all, the absence of smiles was striking. Walking around Moscow, I smiled at the people walking towards me, but no one ever smiled back at me. At first it was even interesting (because this was the first time I encountered such a reaction), but after an hour I felt the influence of the general mood. My mood has changed. I no longer felt inner lightness. He stopped smiling. I frowned. And turned gray. Without realizing it, I became similar to the people around me in appearance and inner state.
How mirror neurons work explains why we smile at the sight of a joyful face, or frown when we see someone in physical pain. Tanya Singer performed brain scans of the participants while they were shown images of physically ill people. The experiment showed that the participants' brain zones that transmit pain signals - the cortex of the anterior insular lobe and the cortex of the anterior cingulate gyrus - were activated. Even just seeing the physical suffering of the other person, the participants seem to be in pain themselves.
Interestingly, mirror neurons act in a similar way in the opposite situations: for example, when we gloat about other people's failures. Singer and her colleagues showed the participants a clip in which people were playing a game. Some players were playing unfair, while others followed all the rules. Then, as an experiment, some of the participants in the game - both honest and dishonest - were subjected to a small but physically perceptible discharge of electricity. Mirror neurons triggered: when honest players received an electric shock, a special area of the brain was highlighted in all participants, which indicated empathy for physical pain. When dishonest gamblers were electrocuted, the brains of the men participating in the experiment not only did not show sympathy, but activated the area of the cerebral reward system (but women in this case also experienced sympathy). In other words, we all tend to sympathize with good people who fail - in our case, honest gamblers - but when failure happens to bad people, men are more likely to feel gloating.
Yawn. Perhaps you feel the urge to yawn, or are you already yawning? I already yawned, and not because I'm bored or tired of writing, I just typed the word "yawn." See, mirror neurons don't just become active when we observe other people's behavior, they start to function even when we read about it.
Not so long ago, a group of UCLA researchers used MRI technology to scan the brains of the participants in the experiment while they read descriptions of a number of actions, for example: "how to bite a peach", "how to hold a pen . "Later, when the participants watched a video in which other people performed these simple actions, the same areas of the brain were activated in them. It is enough for us just to read the phrases “nail scratching on the blackboard”, “bite a lemon”, “a huge shaggy black spider”, how we involuntarily wrinkle, grimace or feel disgust, because immediately we will vividly imagine this unpleasant sound and sour taste lemon, and a spider climbing up the leg. All this happens due to the work of mirror neurons.
Unilever executives once told me that during a focus group to explore the possibility of creating a new shampoo, they noticed that every time a company representative said the words “itching” or “itching,” the participants began to scratch their heads. And this is also the action of mirror neurons. And yet another MRI study confirmed that when we read a work of fiction, these special cells react as if we ourselves are the protagonists of the book.
In other words, even when we observe or read about other people's actions, we still mentally do them. When you see that someone has stumbled and rolled head over heels down the stairs, your mirror neurons do their job: you can feel all the sensations of the fallen person (even if you are not as awkward as he is). So, mirror neurons not only turn on the mimic mechanism, they also evoke feelings of empathy. They send special signals to the limbic system - the area of the brain where emotions are formed that allow us to feel in the place of another person.
What Steve Jobs saw on the streets of New York that day is an eloquent example of how mirror neurons work in our daily lives and the role they play in our shopping choices. Just as the monkey mentally imitated the student's movements, so we humans, thanks to the action of mirror neurons, imitate other people's purchasing choices. Therefore, when we see unusual headphones on other people, mirror neurons make us want exactly the same stylish accessories. But it's not just a matter of desire.
To understand this mechanism, let's walk through the passage. Imagine that you are a woman walking past the window of a GAP store. Here is a handsome mannequin wearing beautifully tailored skinny jeans, a white summer blouse, and a red scarf. The mannequin girl looks amazing: slim, sexy, self-confident, she attracts the eyes of passers-by. Even if you put on a couple of kilograms in weight, you think to yourself: if I buy this outfit, I will be just as beautiful. I will become like her. In these clothes, I will look just as fresh and youthful. Whether you realize it or not, this is how you think. Then you go straight to the Gap, take out a plastic Visa card and after fifteen minutes you are holding jeans, a blouse and a scarf in your hands. As if you have acquired the image that you recently saw in the shop window. Or imagine you are a bachelor who is looking out for purchases at one of the Best Buy stores. With a 52-inch HDTV, you try the new game Guitar Him 3: Rock Legends on the Nintendo Wii. With unique controllers that reproduce musical instruments of iconic brands, you can, for example, play songs from famous bands: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam, "Paint It Black" by The Stone. You have always dreamed of becoming a rock star, your old thirty-year-old Fender is at home covered in dust, and here you can quickly fulfill your dream. And although this is just a game, you can feel like Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton or Eddie Vedder. Unsurprisingly, you end up buying it.
Like the woman who wanted to be like the Gap mannequin, the man decided to experience how he would feel if he realized his dreams of a career as a rock musician. In both cases, the work of the mirror neurons caused an unconscious imitation, leaving aside rational thinking, and in the end the purchase was made.
This is how mirror neurons make us buyers. Also, think about how other people's actions affect the mood we buy and what we buy at all. Take a smile, for example. Recently, two scientists conducted a so-called "smile importance study": they studied how feelings of happiness and joy affect customers. They asked fifty-five volunteers to pretend they had just entered an imaginary travel agency. Participants had to contact one of three employees, one of whom was smiling, the other was upset about something, and the third was irritated to the limit. Which of the three girls do you think most of the participants turned to? That's right, everyone approached the friendly girl. The results of the study showed that smiling “brings the interlocutor more joy, than contemplation of ordinary facial expressions”, and, accordingly, helps to positively resolve all business issues. Moreover, the participants in the experiment, mentally communicating with a smiling girl, said that in the future they would most likely turn to her.
Research from Duke University suggests that we are more attracted to smiling people, which is why we remember their names faster. In 2008, Professors Takashi Dzukira and Roberto Cabeza conducted an MRI study in which all participants were shown images of smiling and non-smiling people. Each picture had a person's name written on it; Nancy, Amber, Christie, et al. As a result, when participants tried to remember the names of smiling people, an area of the cerebral reward system was activated in their brains. Cabeza explained, “We are sensitive to positive communication signals. We want to remember people who treated us well in order to continue to communicate with them in the future. "
Mirror neurons can respond to things that we see online. Here's an example of a 17-year-old teenager named Nick Bailey from Detroit, Michigan. On November 6, 2006, Nintendo released the highly anticipated Wii game console, a device that allows players to use special controllers to simulate a bat swing, tennis serve trajectory, throwing a sword into a bowling alley or breaking a linebacker running with a ball into the goal area. After waiting seventeen hours in line at the local toy store, Toys "Me" Us, the high school student headed home in high spirits, holding a box of Wii under his arm.
Now most of the newly minted Wii owners, barely having time to cross the threshold of the house, open the box with bated breath, connect the device to the TV and test the technical novelty. But not Nick Bailey. Before opening the package, he turned on the video camera, attached a microphone to his shirt, adjusted all the controls, and pressed the record button. Only then did he start printing out his Wii, filming it on camera.
Just a couple of hours after Nick solemnly opened the package, this moment could be seen on the Youtube site. com, and 71 thousand views of this video were registered in a week. Nintendo fans seemed to enjoy just watching someone rejoice in discovering a new toy. By the way, there are entire websites where people post videos to share their holiday mood for a new acquisition. For example, on sites www. unbox. it. com and www. unboxing. com Internet users can see people from all over the world scissoring or tearing packaging from their purchases. As Chad Stoller, CEO of Emerging Platforms at Organic Advertising Agency explains, “This is the ultimate manifestation of the desire to have. So many people dream of things which they cannot afford, at the moment they simply cannot buy them. This is how they find a way to satisfy their passion. "
The principle of "imitation" explains a lot of what influences our buying choices. Have you ever changed your mind about a particular product? Perhaps at the beginning you were simply not interested in it or you had some complaints about its appearance or quality. Let's say you thought Crocs shoes were terrible until you saw that one in three wears them. Instantly the first thought "terrible shoes" was replaced by another - "and I urgently need the same." Sometimes a product becomes more attractive just because we often see it in others. We look at models on the pages of fashion magazines and want to have the same clothes or makeup. We look at the expensive cars of rich celebrities, at their luxurious mansions, and we think: and I want to live this way. We see friends have a new cool LCD TV or Bang &
It is not only the action of mirror neurons that is manifested here. Don't discount the work of dopamine, the brain's biologically active chemical that enhances feelings of pleasure. Lack of dopamine can cause various kinds of depression, which is why this substance is highly addictive in humans. So, for example, the action of dopamine influences the choice of buyers, persuading them to make purchases. When you see a digital camera or dazzling diamond earrings in a shop window, thanks to the imperceptible action of dopamine, you feel a surge of pleasure, and in a second, not yet fully reporting your actions, you already enter the PIN code of your plastic card (scientists believe that in on average, buying decisions are made in 2.5 seconds). A few minutes later you leave the store, the feeling of euphoria caused by dopamine disappears - and you are already full of doubts whether you need this camera, whether you will ever wear these earrings. A familiar story, isn't it?
Of course, everyone knows the expression "shopping therapy". We all know it's easy to get addicted to shopping. Whatever your weakness - shoes, CDs, electronics, Twinkies, Maytag refrigerators or Bulgari watches - buying them takes up a huge chunk of your free time. But is it true that shopping makes people happier? From a scientific point of view, it is, at least for a short period. We owe this dose of happiness to dopamine, which induces feelings of well-deserved reward, pleasure and well-being. When we make our first purchase, our brain cells start producing dopamine, our mood improves, but dopamine makes us want to continue shopping, even if our mind tells us to stop. Harvard University economics professor David Leibson said:
Believe it or not, this phenomenon is explained by the instinct for self-preservation. Dr. Susan Bruckheimer of UCLA draws our attention to the fact that "the action of dopamine increases the anticipation of a variety of rewards, including rewards associated with gambling, cash and community rewards." In other words, that powerful rush of pleasure we feel in anticipation of buying a new BlackBerry or Nano, for example, has a positive effect on reproductive function and increases the chances of survival. Why? Whether we realize it or not, we always think about how the next purchase will affect our social status, which, in turn, is associated with reproductive function.
Scientists were able to find that the frontal part of the cerebral cortex, or the tenth Brodmann field (PB10), is associated with the perception of oneself as a part of society; it is activated by the contemplation of high-end goods, but by the sight of an old Ford Fairlane or a new set of wrenches, it is not. In other words, the value of various expensive items (smartphones, Harley motorcycles, etc.) is justified only by the extent to which they increase social status. Probably, we only need a fitted Prada dress or a shiny new Alpha Romeo to attract the attention of the opposite sex and subsequently extend our lineage with this person.
So what's the connection between dopamine and mirror neurons? Let's find out what impulses arise in the human brain if he looks into the fashion store Abercrombie & Fitch - a real "Mecca" for young people. In outdoor advertising of stores of this brand, especially in big cities, images of half-naked models are always used. In addition, the company also invites real models to “parade” in front of the store. Models showcase Abercrombie clothing.
Young, sexy, beautiful, blooming, they look chic - and they are part of the fashion scene. Stop for a moment at the Abercrombie store on Fifth Avenue in New York and you will see dozens, if not hundreds, of pedestrians slow down to get a better look. Let's say you are an insecure teenager. When you walk past a store, your mirror neurons fire. You imagine this picture: you are famous, adorable, you are in the center of attention.
You do not hold back and go to the store. The atmosphere in the store is reminiscent of a noisy nightclub, here even the service staff are difficult to distinguish from the models strolling in front of the entrance. The sales girl asks how she can help you. "Help me? - mentally you ask. - Damn it! You can help me become like you. You breathe in the characteristic sweet scent of Abercrombie, which you will feel for a long time after visiting the store, you have not yet tried on a single thing, but in your mind you have already bought everything in the store.
With your chosen clothes, you go to the checkout. At the thought that you are about to become the owner of all these jeans and jumpers, the secretion of dopamine increases, and you are already in seventh heaven. While the seller knocks out a receipt and packs things in a branded black and white bag with the image of the models, you feel like one of “them” - everything is great, wonderful, great. Now you will always associate this feeling with a special, pervasive aroma, attractive models and a festive atmosphere of the store. Taking home all these things in a spectacular package, you take with you a piece of success and popularity.
A few days later you are walking down the street again and suddenly you find another Abercrombie store. This time, you smell this special scent a few meters from the store, the dopamine effect is intensified, and you feel the familiar rush of pleasure again. At the sight of advertisements decorating the entrance to the store and hired models strolling nearby, the mirror neurons begin to work again, and some irresistible force pulls you inward to get another dose of pleasure and spend money on your parent's credit card. Rational thinking simply cannot compete with mirror neurons, under the influence of which you feel sexuality and attractiveness, and dopamine, which brings you almost to "orgasm" in anticipation of new purchases.
As you can see, video games, such as Guitar It 3, computer games, such as the cult game The Sims, virtual space such as Second Life are gaining popularity largely due to the action of mirror neurons. It doesn't matter what exactly attracts us in virtual reality - whether we want to learn a complex guitar riff with Guitar Him or buy a new BMW in the virtual world of Second Life, mirror neurons allow us to get absolutely real emotions from these actions ... Even if we are sitting in front of a luminous screen in a dark basement, these virtual toys give us exactly as much pleasure as we would get if all this happened to us in real life.
Now you know why, looking at the smoking actors, we ourselves reach for a cigarette and become heavy smokers (half of smoking teenagers - 390 thousand annually - adopt a bad habit from our favorite actors); why, having seen enough of extremely thin models, many young girls begin to starve themselves and suffer from anorexia; why almost everyone on the planet can easily quote Michael Corleone from The Godfather; why the Macarena dance has become extremely fashionable; why, when you first saw Michael Jackson's moonwalk, you could feel the energy of his every move and ran to buy his Thriller album (and one white glove - a retail phenomenon!). I think in the future, when brand managers finally realize the impact that mirror neurons have on consumer choice,
So buyers, be careful. After all, the future of advertising is not at all an illusion in the mirror, but real knowledge about the action of mirror neurons. They affect our loyalty, consciousness, wallets and shopping biology to a much greater extent than one might think.
How? To find the answer to this question, we will cross the Atlantic Ocean and travel to a brain scanning laboratory on a campus in Central England. We will again talk about smoking and passion for something, consider how billboards, store counters and, perhaps, our own living room act on our subconscious, nudging us to make purchases. Warning: you will be shocked by what you learn in the next chapter.
A very entertaining excerpt from Buyology: An Exciting Journey into the Brain of the Modern Consumer by Martin Lindstrom.
In 2004, Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobe, while walking along Madison Avenue in New York, noticed something out of the ordinary. He saw headphones of the purest white color (you probably remember that the color of most headphones in those days was not original, that is, it was black). They were everywhere: they flaunted on their heads, dangled from the cabbage soup, hung on the chest, stuck out of the pockets, bags and backpacks of passers-by. “It seemed like I saw people with white headphones at every intersection, and I thought then: 'God! Has it really happened? ”To quote Jobs, who had recently launched his company's most successful product, the iPod, on the market.
Of course, someone may think that iPods (and the already cult white headphones worn by everyone and everywhere) are just a passing hobby, a toy for a day. Someone says they made a revolution. But from the point of view of neurobiology, what Jobs saw was nothing more than a victory for the area of our brain associated with mirror neurons.
In 1992, Italian researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti, together with a group of scientists in the city of Parma (Italy), began to study the work of the brain of macaques in order to understand how the motor function of the body is carried out. In particular, they studied a special area of the monkey's brain, called the F5 zone, or the premotor cortex, in which activity was observed when the monkeys performed some movement, such as picking up a nut. An interesting fact is that the neurons of this part of the brain became active not only when the monkeys themselves reached for the nut, but also when they saw that other monkeys stretch their paws towards the nut. This came as a surprise to scientists, because it was believed that neurons in the F5 zone usually do not respond to visual stimuli.
Once, on a hot summer day, Rizzolatti, together with his colleagues, witnessed an amazing picture: one of his graduates, returning after lunch to the laboratory with ice cream in his hands, noticed the greedy gaze of a macaque. As soon as the student brought the ice cream to his lips and took a bite of it, the computer monitor with a characteristic sound instantly highlighted the increase in the activity of zone F5.
The macaque sat without moving: it did not reach out its paws for the ice cream, did not lick it, and there was nothing in its paws. Observing how the student brings ice cream to his mouth, the monkey mentally reproduced this action.
This amazing phenomenon was eventually called by Rizzolatti the action of "mirror neurons" - neurons that were activated when primates performed an action or watched how this action was performed. “It took us several years to believe in our discovery,” the scientist said.
However, not all the actions of the student or other monkeys activated mirror neurons in the experimental monkey's brain. The team of scientists was able to determine that the mirror neurons of macaques reacted to the so-called "targeted actions", that is, actions aimed at a specific object, for example: pick up a nut, bring ice cream to your mouth. These actions were contrasted with all the other actions that were habitual and did not affect the monkeys in any way: for example, walking around the room or standing with arms crossed.
However, does the same thing happen to the human brain? Do we also imitate the actions of other people? Of course, for obvious ethical reasons, scientists cannot insert microelectrodes into the human brain. However, with the help of MRI and modern electroencephalography, it is presumably possible to establish that the frontal and parietal lobes of the human brain contain mirror neurons, since it is these areas that are activated when a person performs certain actions or observing the actions of other people. The existence of mirror neurons in the human brain today is beyond doubt. One distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California said, "The discovery of mirror neurons is as important to psychology as the discovery of DNA is to biology."
Have you ever wondered why, when you see your favorite baseball player hitting the ball in the middle of the ninth inning, your hand clenches itself into a fist, imitating the movement of an athlete? Or why, when your country's national football team scores a goal, do you throw your hands up? Why, when in a movie you see a heroine ready to burst into tears, tears also come to your eyes? And how do you explain the flow of energy when Clint Eastwood or Vin Diesel deal with the villains in the film, which lasts another hour after the end of the film? And the feeling of aesthetic admiration that overwhelms you at the sight of a ballerina or virtuoso pianist playing a classical piece? The reason for this is mirror neurons. The response of our brain is similar to the response of monkeys in the Rizzo-latti experiment: by observing the actions of other people, Whether it's a penalty kick or a great arpeggio played on a Steinway grand piano, it's like we're doing it ourselves. As if observing and acting are one and the same.
The specificity of the action of mirror neurons explains why we often unwittingly imitate the behavior of other people. This innate reaction manifests itself even in infancy: it is worth showing the tongue to the baby, and most likely he will do the same in response. When people speak to us in a whisper, we also begin to speak more quietly. We walk more slowly around older people. If on the plane with us a person speaks with a pronounced accent, we, without knowing it, begin to imitate him. I remember my trip to Moscow during the Cold War era: I was struck then by the colorlessness of the city. The sky was gray, the houses were gray, and even the faces of passers-by seemed unusually pale to me. But most of all, the absence of smiles was striking. Walking around Moscow, I smiled at the people walking towards me, but no one ever smiled back at me. At first it was even interesting (because this was the first time I encountered such a reaction), but after an hour I felt the influence of the general mood. My mood has changed. I no longer felt inner lightness. He stopped smiling. I frowned. And turned gray. Without realizing it, I became similar to the people around me in appearance and inner state.
How mirror neurons work explains why we smile at the sight of a joyful face, or frown when we see someone in physical pain. Tanya Singer performed brain scans of the participants while they were shown images of physically ill people. The experiment showed that the participants' brain zones that transmit pain signals - the cortex of the anterior insular lobe and the cortex of the anterior cingulate gyrus - were activated. Even just seeing the physical suffering of the other person, the participants seem to be in pain themselves.
Interestingly, mirror neurons act in a similar way in the opposite situations: for example, when we gloat about other people's failures. Singer and her colleagues showed the participants a clip in which people were playing a game. Some players were playing unfair, while others followed all the rules. Then, as an experiment, some of the participants in the game - both honest and dishonest - were subjected to a small but physically perceptible discharge of electricity. Mirror neurons triggered: when honest players received an electric shock, a special area of the brain was highlighted in all participants, which indicated empathy for physical pain. When dishonest gamblers were electrocuted, the brains of the men participating in the experiment not only did not show sympathy, but activated the area of the cerebral reward system (but women in this case also experienced sympathy). In other words, we all tend to sympathize with good people who fail - in our case, honest gamblers - but when failure happens to bad people, men are more likely to feel gloating.
Yawn. Perhaps you feel the urge to yawn, or are you already yawning? I already yawned, and not because I'm bored or tired of writing, I just typed the word "yawn." See, mirror neurons don't just become active when we observe other people's behavior, they start to function even when we read about it.
Not so long ago, a group of UCLA researchers used MRI technology to scan the brains of the participants in the experiment while they read descriptions of a number of actions, for example: "how to bite a peach", "how to hold a pen . "Later, when the participants watched a video in which other people performed these simple actions, the same areas of the brain were activated in them. It is enough for us just to read the phrases “nail scratching on the blackboard”, “bite a lemon”, “a huge shaggy black spider”, how we involuntarily wrinkle, grimace or feel disgust, because immediately we will vividly imagine this unpleasant sound and sour taste lemon, and a spider climbing up the leg. All this happens due to the work of mirror neurons.
Unilever executives once told me that during a focus group to explore the possibility of creating a new shampoo, they noticed that every time a company representative said the words “itching” or “itching,” the participants began to scratch their heads. And this is also the action of mirror neurons. And yet another MRI study confirmed that when we read a work of fiction, these special cells react as if we ourselves are the protagonists of the book.
In other words, even when we observe or read about other people's actions, we still mentally do them. When you see that someone has stumbled and rolled head over heels down the stairs, your mirror neurons do their job: you can feel all the sensations of the fallen person (even if you are not as awkward as he is). So, mirror neurons not only turn on the mimic mechanism, they also evoke feelings of empathy. They send special signals to the limbic system - the area of the brain where emotions are formed that allow us to feel in the place of another person.
What Steve Jobs saw on the streets of New York that day is an eloquent example of how mirror neurons work in our daily lives and the role they play in our shopping choices. Just as the monkey mentally imitated the student's movements, so we humans, thanks to the action of mirror neurons, imitate other people's purchasing choices. Therefore, when we see unusual headphones on other people, mirror neurons make us want exactly the same stylish accessories. But it's not just a matter of desire.
To understand this mechanism, let's walk through the passage. Imagine that you are a woman walking past the window of a GAP store. Here is a handsome mannequin wearing beautifully tailored skinny jeans, a white summer blouse, and a red scarf. The mannequin girl looks amazing: slim, sexy, self-confident, she attracts the eyes of passers-by. Even if you put on a couple of kilograms in weight, you think to yourself: if I buy this outfit, I will be just as beautiful. I will become like her. In these clothes, I will look just as fresh and youthful. Whether you realize it or not, this is how you think. Then you go straight to the Gap, take out a plastic Visa card and after fifteen minutes you are holding jeans, a blouse and a scarf in your hands. As if you have acquired the image that you recently saw in the shop window. Or imagine you are a bachelor who is looking out for purchases at one of the Best Buy stores. With a 52-inch HDTV, you try the new game Guitar Him 3: Rock Legends on the Nintendo Wii. With unique controllers that reproduce musical instruments of iconic brands, you can, for example, play songs from famous bands: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam, "Paint It Black" by The Stone. You have always dreamed of becoming a rock star, your old thirty-year-old Fender is at home covered in dust, and here you can quickly fulfill your dream. And although this is just a game, you can feel like Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton or Eddie Vedder. Unsurprisingly, you end up buying it.
Like the woman who wanted to be like the Gap mannequin, the man decided to experience how he would feel if he realized his dreams of a career as a rock musician. In both cases, the work of the mirror neurons caused an unconscious imitation, leaving aside rational thinking, and in the end the purchase was made.
This is how mirror neurons make us buyers. Also, think about how other people's actions affect the mood we buy and what we buy at all. Take a smile, for example. Recently, two scientists conducted a so-called "smile importance study": they studied how feelings of happiness and joy affect customers. They asked fifty-five volunteers to pretend they had just entered an imaginary travel agency. Participants had to contact one of three employees, one of whom was smiling, the other was upset about something, and the third was irritated to the limit. Which of the three girls do you think most of the participants turned to? That's right, everyone approached the friendly girl. The results of the study showed that smiling “brings the interlocutor more joy, than contemplation of ordinary facial expressions”, and, accordingly, helps to positively resolve all business issues. Moreover, the participants in the experiment, mentally communicating with a smiling girl, said that in the future they would most likely turn to her.
Research from Duke University suggests that we are more attracted to smiling people, which is why we remember their names faster. In 2008, Professors Takashi Dzukira and Roberto Cabeza conducted an MRI study in which all participants were shown images of smiling and non-smiling people. Each picture had a person's name written on it; Nancy, Amber, Christie, et al. As a result, when participants tried to remember the names of smiling people, an area of the cerebral reward system was activated in their brains. Cabeza explained, “We are sensitive to positive communication signals. We want to remember people who treated us well in order to continue to communicate with them in the future. "
Mirror neurons can respond to things that we see online. Here's an example of a 17-year-old teenager named Nick Bailey from Detroit, Michigan. On November 6, 2006, Nintendo released the highly anticipated Wii game console, a device that allows players to use special controllers to simulate a bat swing, tennis serve trajectory, throwing a sword into a bowling alley or breaking a linebacker running with a ball into the goal area. After waiting seventeen hours in line at the local toy store, Toys "Me" Us, the high school student headed home in high spirits, holding a box of Wii under his arm.
Now most of the newly minted Wii owners, barely having time to cross the threshold of the house, open the box with bated breath, connect the device to the TV and test the technical novelty. But not Nick Bailey. Before opening the package, he turned on the video camera, attached a microphone to his shirt, adjusted all the controls, and pressed the record button. Only then did he start printing out his Wii, filming it on camera.
Just a couple of hours after Nick solemnly opened the package, this moment could be seen on the Youtube site. com, and 71 thousand views of this video were registered in a week. Nintendo fans seemed to enjoy just watching someone rejoice in discovering a new toy. By the way, there are entire websites where people post videos to share their holiday mood for a new acquisition. For example, on sites www. unbox. it. com and www. unboxing. com Internet users can see people from all over the world scissoring or tearing packaging from their purchases. As Chad Stoller, CEO of Emerging Platforms at Organic Advertising Agency explains, “This is the ultimate manifestation of the desire to have. So many people dream of things which they cannot afford, at the moment they simply cannot buy them. This is how they find a way to satisfy their passion. "
The principle of "imitation" explains a lot of what influences our buying choices. Have you ever changed your mind about a particular product? Perhaps at the beginning you were simply not interested in it or you had some complaints about its appearance or quality. Let's say you thought Crocs shoes were terrible until you saw that one in three wears them. Instantly the first thought "terrible shoes" was replaced by another - "and I urgently need the same." Sometimes a product becomes more attractive just because we often see it in others. We look at models on the pages of fashion magazines and want to have the same clothes or makeup. We look at the expensive cars of rich celebrities, at their luxurious mansions, and we think: and I want to live this way. We see friends have a new cool LCD TV or Bang &
It is not only the action of mirror neurons that is manifested here. Don't discount the work of dopamine, the brain's biologically active chemical that enhances feelings of pleasure. Lack of dopamine can cause various kinds of depression, which is why this substance is highly addictive in humans. So, for example, the action of dopamine influences the choice of buyers, persuading them to make purchases. When you see a digital camera or dazzling diamond earrings in a shop window, thanks to the imperceptible action of dopamine, you feel a surge of pleasure, and in a second, not yet fully reporting your actions, you already enter the PIN code of your plastic card (scientists believe that in on average, buying decisions are made in 2.5 seconds). A few minutes later you leave the store, the feeling of euphoria caused by dopamine disappears - and you are already full of doubts whether you need this camera, whether you will ever wear these earrings. A familiar story, isn't it?
Of course, everyone knows the expression "shopping therapy". We all know it's easy to get addicted to shopping. Whatever your weakness - shoes, CDs, electronics, Twinkies, Maytag refrigerators or Bulgari watches - buying them takes up a huge chunk of your free time. But is it true that shopping makes people happier? From a scientific point of view, it is, at least for a short period. We owe this dose of happiness to dopamine, which induces feelings of well-deserved reward, pleasure and well-being. When we make our first purchase, our brain cells start producing dopamine, our mood improves, but dopamine makes us want to continue shopping, even if our mind tells us to stop. Harvard University economics professor David Leibson said:
Believe it or not, this phenomenon is explained by the instinct for self-preservation. Dr. Susan Bruckheimer of UCLA draws our attention to the fact that "the action of dopamine increases the anticipation of a variety of rewards, including rewards associated with gambling, cash and community rewards." In other words, that powerful rush of pleasure we feel in anticipation of buying a new BlackBerry or Nano, for example, has a positive effect on reproductive function and increases the chances of survival. Why? Whether we realize it or not, we always think about how the next purchase will affect our social status, which, in turn, is associated with reproductive function.
Scientists were able to find that the frontal part of the cerebral cortex, or the tenth Brodmann field (PB10), is associated with the perception of oneself as a part of society; it is activated by the contemplation of high-end goods, but by the sight of an old Ford Fairlane or a new set of wrenches, it is not. In other words, the value of various expensive items (smartphones, Harley motorcycles, etc.) is justified only by the extent to which they increase social status. Probably, we only need a fitted Prada dress or a shiny new Alpha Romeo to attract the attention of the opposite sex and subsequently extend our lineage with this person.
So what's the connection between dopamine and mirror neurons? Let's find out what impulses arise in the human brain if he looks into the fashion store Abercrombie & Fitch - a real "Mecca" for young people. In outdoor advertising of stores of this brand, especially in big cities, images of half-naked models are always used. In addition, the company also invites real models to “parade” in front of the store. Models showcase Abercrombie clothing.
Young, sexy, beautiful, blooming, they look chic - and they are part of the fashion scene. Stop for a moment at the Abercrombie store on Fifth Avenue in New York and you will see dozens, if not hundreds, of pedestrians slow down to get a better look. Let's say you are an insecure teenager. When you walk past a store, your mirror neurons fire. You imagine this picture: you are famous, adorable, you are in the center of attention.
You do not hold back and go to the store. The atmosphere in the store is reminiscent of a noisy nightclub, here even the service staff are difficult to distinguish from the models strolling in front of the entrance. The sales girl asks how she can help you. "Help me? - mentally you ask. - Damn it! You can help me become like you. You breathe in the characteristic sweet scent of Abercrombie, which you will feel for a long time after visiting the store, you have not yet tried on a single thing, but in your mind you have already bought everything in the store.
With your chosen clothes, you go to the checkout. At the thought that you are about to become the owner of all these jeans and jumpers, the secretion of dopamine increases, and you are already in seventh heaven. While the seller knocks out a receipt and packs things in a branded black and white bag with the image of the models, you feel like one of “them” - everything is great, wonderful, great. Now you will always associate this feeling with a special, pervasive aroma, attractive models and a festive atmosphere of the store. Taking home all these things in a spectacular package, you take with you a piece of success and popularity.
A few days later you are walking down the street again and suddenly you find another Abercrombie store. This time, you smell this special scent a few meters from the store, the dopamine effect is intensified, and you feel the familiar rush of pleasure again. At the sight of advertisements decorating the entrance to the store and hired models strolling nearby, the mirror neurons begin to work again, and some irresistible force pulls you inward to get another dose of pleasure and spend money on your parent's credit card. Rational thinking simply cannot compete with mirror neurons, under the influence of which you feel sexuality and attractiveness, and dopamine, which brings you almost to "orgasm" in anticipation of new purchases.
As you can see, video games, such as Guitar It 3, computer games, such as the cult game The Sims, virtual space such as Second Life are gaining popularity largely due to the action of mirror neurons. It doesn't matter what exactly attracts us in virtual reality - whether we want to learn a complex guitar riff with Guitar Him or buy a new BMW in the virtual world of Second Life, mirror neurons allow us to get absolutely real emotions from these actions ... Even if we are sitting in front of a luminous screen in a dark basement, these virtual toys give us exactly as much pleasure as we would get if all this happened to us in real life.
Now you know why, looking at the smoking actors, we ourselves reach for a cigarette and become heavy smokers (half of smoking teenagers - 390 thousand annually - adopt a bad habit from our favorite actors); why, having seen enough of extremely thin models, many young girls begin to starve themselves and suffer from anorexia; why almost everyone on the planet can easily quote Michael Corleone from The Godfather; why the Macarena dance has become extremely fashionable; why, when you first saw Michael Jackson's moonwalk, you could feel the energy of his every move and ran to buy his Thriller album (and one white glove - a retail phenomenon!). I think in the future, when brand managers finally realize the impact that mirror neurons have on consumer choice,
So buyers, be careful. After all, the future of advertising is not at all an illusion in the mirror, but real knowledge about the action of mirror neurons. They affect our loyalty, consciousness, wallets and shopping biology to a much greater extent than one might think.
How? To find the answer to this question, we will cross the Atlantic Ocean and travel to a brain scanning laboratory on a campus in Central England. We will again talk about smoking and passion for something, consider how billboards, store counters and, perhaps, our own living room act on our subconscious, nudging us to make purchases. Warning: you will be shocked by what you learn in the next chapter.
