Pyschology of Connection

The psychology of buying fascinates me, especially when it's based on making connections through touch. Our curiosity might get us in trouble but just think about all those connections we're making.

I grew up with family members who shopped as a hobby and realize how shopping is ingrained in our culture. Like it or not, it's how some of us find satisfaction, occupy our time and fund other parts of our culture. My father and I always laughed at our efforts to outsmart commercials and long before DVR we would talk about how the mute button was destroying advertising. How ironic now that I'm a brand strategist. It's even a little sad that now I'm blogging about my favorite spots. My only hope is that I can evolve what used to bore me. If advertising is here to stay, why not design stories that are engaging and entertaining. With that in mind here are a few ways to communicate better.

This article in Time discusses how touching an object creates a relationship and makes you more likely to buy it. The phenomenon is based on research of the "endowment effect", which states that owning an object creates more value in the mind of a consumer. This is based on the premise that touching an object makes you feel more connected to it. This segues nicely into another article, designing to sell, which lists successful user experience techniques. More specifically they talk about trials as some of the best strategies to lure customers. In an online world we can't always touch a product but we can create an experience that is as close to touching it as possible.

As online selling continues to evolve I think we're going to start seeing techniques for developing a connection. Right now that may mean more pictures, or techniques to create a deeper level of engagement and interaction. In the future it may mean using a holographic projector create a 3 dimensional replica on your desk. It would be great to experience a product by visualizing it as if it really existed

MIT Classes Online for Free

What a great resource! In the past 2 hours I've watched a circuits and electronics class and listening to a psychology class taught by MIT professors.

MIT has their entire curriculum online and professors have been recording their classes for a few years now and are making them all available online here - for free!

A recent article 'How to take a course at MIT free -- at home' by the Post Gazette covers the details of how this $4 million per year service is funded and what implications it has. This open courseware approach is changing the way information is spread and paving the road for making new innovations and improving education.

Open Up a Little, Hugs For Everyone

Do we keep to ourselves a bit too much sometimes? Is there an advantage to displacing our tunnel vision mentality when it comes to dealing with the 'would be friends' (or daily strangers, depending on how you look at it,) who surround us? Many of us have this mentality, most easily observed in big cities, that we do our thing, stick to ourselves and everything will be alright. I understand the value of alone time, I like to reflect, it's like sleeping after a day of hard thinking, all your good ideas incubate. But I feel like there's some unspoken aversion to being publicly social.

God Grew Tired of Us was an interesting documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan who endured harsh persecution followed by a 1,000 mile relocation trek to escape death and then 10 years away from anyone they knew. The film is about the experiences the boys have when they are given the opportunity to relocate to the US. Most fascinating was their observation of the way Americans treat their neighbors. They're surprised to see people ignore one another on the streets and walk straight past people who are crying in a public place. This stood out because these men from Sudan had an objective perspective of our culture and this kind of social behavior really struck them as odd; so I wondered a bit more about why this behavior of walking around with blinders on in our own little bubble has become normal.

The WSJ recently wrote an article about how men will avoid a lost child in a mall for fear of being labeled a predator. I just watched the High Fives video which again gave me the sense that people don't seek contact with strangers and will simply avoid it if approached.

High Five video


This attitude contrasts some other films where people are reluctant but eventually embrace the idea that public behavior might have some benefits and it isn't that bad to engage strangers.

Free Hugs Video



and Dave Mathew's Everyday video


These examples are an inspiration but certainly exhibit behavior that most people would choose to avoid.
After watching God Grew Tired Of Us I realized how our culture really encourages people to keep to themselves in public and couldn't help to think how our daily lives would be improved if we made the extra effort to be a little more open.