In Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? I talk about the role of the “old” brain in scanning the environment looking for anything that is dangerous. This also means that the unconscious, old brain is looking for anything that is new or novel. Water vs. fruit juice — Research by Gregory Berns (2001) shows…
Category Archives: research
100 Things You Should Know About People: #66 — Emotions Are Tied To Muscle Movement
Botox is a popular cosmetic procedure to reduce facial wrinkles. Botox is injected into various muscles, for instance in the face, and it paralyzes the muscles thereby causing the wrinkles to “relax”. It’s been known for a while that one of the side effects of Botox treatments are that people can’t fully express emotions (for…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #64 — Groups Are Swayed By A Dominant Personality
In the last blog post I talked about how groups end up making faulty decisions. How many times have you been part of a group discussion and decision-making process and there is one person who is dominating the conversation and the decision. Just because decisions are made in a group setting doesn’t mean that the…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #63 — Group Decision-Making Is Faulty
If your work life is anything like mine, your day is filled with groups meeting by phone or in person and making decisions. Unfortunately research shows that group decision-making has some serious flaws. The Danger of Group-Think — Andreas Mojzisch and Stefan Schulz-Hardt (2010) presented people with information on prospective job candidates. People who received…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #58 — People See What They Expect To See
During December of 2009, Farid Seif, a businessman from Houston, Texas, boarded a flight in Houston with a loaded handgun in his laptop case. He made it through security without a problem. Farid is not a terrorist. The gun is legal in Texas; he forgot to take it out of his laptop case before his…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #55 – During Sleep You Consolidate Learnings and Memories
Why do people sleep? — Well, not just people, but all kinds of animals sleep. When you think about it, it’s actually quite a strange idea that for 1/4 to 1/3 of each day we go unconscious and are oblivious to the world around us. Scientists for years have wondered and studied what goes on…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #49 — The Brain Looks For Simple Patterns
What do you see when you look at the x’s below? xx xx xx xx Chances are you will say you see four sets of 2 x’s each. You won’t see them as 8 separate x’s. You interpret the white space, or lack of it, as a pattern. People are great at…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #47 — People Value A Product More Highly If It Is Physically In Front Of Them
You go online to re-order a box of your favorite pens. Will you value the product more if the product page has a picture of the pens versus just a text description? Would you think the pens are worth more if you were in the office store and the pen was right in front of…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #42 — We’ll spend more money if you don’t mention money
You are out for a Sunday bike ride on your favorite biking path, and you come across a pair of kids selling lemonade. Do you stop and buy some lemonade? Do you like the lemonade? Does your buying or liking the lemonade have anything to do with the wording on the sign next to the…
100 Things You Should Know About People: #41 — Your Most Vivid Memories Are Wrong
If I ask you to remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard about the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, chances are very good that you will be able to tell me in great detail your memory of that day, and how you heard about the attacks….