Incessant Blog Reading Triggers Near Insanity: Scientists Baffled
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Incessant blog reading or “inbleading”, apparently has its consequences. “Bleaders” (incessant blog readers) net-wide, are reporting irrational behavior and brief memory lapses following extended periods of extreme blog hopping.
Of course that is all made up. But before you sail away, ask yourself, “just how well is my brain able to discern the difference between the stupid and the stupendous, the credible and the incredulous”? From the brain’s perspective, the more outlandish and crazier the claim is, the greater the curiosity! Even the exclamation point at the end of the last sentence has you wondering, “did I just read/hear/see that right”? Don’t worry, the “Scientists Baffled” comment gets everyone too. Welcome to the wacky world of Neuromarketing, the branch of neuroscience that concerns itself with the brain’s “buy button” and various hidden subliminal “switches”.
Neuroimaging studies are now quite definitive about where basic beliefs like “do fish swim?”, “is the pope Catholic?”, get processed in the brain. That’s the job of the ventromedial PreFrontal Cortex (vmPFC). A rather unremarkable area near the front of the brain towards the midline.
Things like uncertainty and error detection however, “light up” a whole other area of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC in turn, has direct output connections to the basal ganglia. Interpretation? That “gut feeling”, that intuitive sense of the believable or unbelievable governed by something we call common sense–well, it’s real! In fact, a finely tuned connection between the anterior cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia may be the basis for someone’s uncanny ability to discern the truth given conflicting facts (the headline of this post for example.) It may also help explain why some people react with a very guttural sense of disgust when confronted with a lie. It just doesn’t “feel” right.
Gerald Zaltman Ph.D., a member of Harvard University’s interdisciplinary initiative, “Mind, Brain, and Behavior”, believes that 95% of consumer decision making occurs subconsciously. Dr. Zaltman is recognized as one of the nation’s top five marketing scholars and holds patents in the area of neuroimaging and neuromarketing. But can you really be “made” to believe something that isn’t believable? Can subliminal messaging subvert your subconscious? Not unless you let it.
When it comes to marketing, “neuro” or otherwise, honesty is still the best policy. Confirming marketing nonsense with crazy headlines is after all, just a psychological gimmick with no real lasting power. Deception is nothing more than denying what “is”. Understanding the mind of your market…well that’s another matter entirely. Cognitive sciences combined with nanotechnology will continue to give birth to strange new disciplines. My advice…start fine tuning your ACC/Basal nuclei interneurons. In other words, “go with your gut” cause’ the fun has just begun…so-to-speak.
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