Everything We Think We Know About People Is Wrong - Stowe Boyd  ⇢

The result of a great deal of cognitive science research demonstrates that people don’t really understand how we think, how we influence each other, and the degree to which we are connected. We also lack an understanding of water, which is the most common liquid on Earth:

Everything We Think We Know About People Is Wrong - Stowe Boyd via Nexalogy blog:

[…] It turns out that people — and marketers — don’t really understand influence very well, despite being embedded in social networks their entire lives: we really don’t understand the way that we are influenced by other people. For example, if someone touches you when you first meet, you are ten times more likely to remember that person. But we are unaware, later, that the touch was the reason for our recollection. We underestimate the impact of a kind word, or the chilling effects of workplace fear. There are dozens of examples of this sort coming out of cognitive science that demonstrate that we are being strongly influenced below the conscious level, physiologically, all the time. The actions of others can make us fearful, or confident, or curious, or suspicious — and it can happen invisibly. People just don’t have a great insight into the social interactions of people, despite being involved in them. Most contemporary thinking about our social interactions is derived from an economic view that considers groups as collections of individuals, where each individual makes more-or-less rational decisions intended to maximize benefits to themselves and their loved ones. I think there is a analogy with the historical physics view of how fluids work, like water, or water specifically.

read more at Nexalogy blog

23 April 2012 56
cognitive sciencesocial physicswatersocial networks

Notes

  1. genqueue reblogged this from trashmajik
  2. thatsthelight reblogged this from stoweboyd and added:
    COGNITIVE SCIENCE, YO.
  3. nanagyesie-photography reblogged this from emergentfutures
  4. eastofthebay reblogged this from emergentfutures
  5. kukuforkokopuffs reblogged this from emergentfutures
  6. eudamon reblogged this from emergentfutures and added:
    The result of a great deal of cognitive science research demonstrates that people don’t really understand how we think,
  7. trysomthinnew reblogged this from emergentfutures
  8. msgnrbyrd reblogged this from emergentfutures
  9. future-eco-design reblogged this from emergentfutures
  10. sirlowkey reblogged this from emergentfutures
  11. emergentfutures reblogged this from futuramb
  12. trashmajik reblogged this from futuramb
  13. link697 reblogged this from stoweboyd
  14. tnlnyc reblogged this from stoweboyd
  15. willtoparrhesia reblogged this from futuramb
  16. futuristlab reblogged this from futuramb
  17. andreiafscosta reblogged this from futuramb
  18. octoswan reblogged this from futuramb
  19. wak3thefuckup reblogged this from inspirement
  20. inspirement reblogged this from robcayman
  21. disleksili reblogged this from futuramb

← Previous Post Next Post →

About

Web anthropologist, futurist, author. My focus is the future, and the tectonic forces pushing business, media, and society into an unclear and accelerating future. (More.)

Working on longer format projects, Sign up for the newsletter.

GigaOM Research analyst and curator.



Also writing beaconstreets.com.

Contact me. or ask me a question.



My Vizify profile.

Socialogy

  • Brian Solis | Brian and I debunk big data, and Brian makes the case for empathy.

  • Deb Lavoy | Deb is dubious about management's inclinations, and says, 'Just because you are networked doesn’t mean it necessarily helps you understand, or realize your needs more effectively.'

  • John Hagel | John offers up some great insights, like the fact that passion is lower the larger that businesses get.

  • Euan Semple | A chat with my old pal, and the author of Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do

  • Will McInnes | The author of Culture Shock and managing director of Nixon/McInnes

  • Jennifer Magnolfi | An interview with the woman who said, 'Work is not a place you go, it's a thing you do'.

    • Hot Now

  • What Drives Us? | A draft chapter of my book, discussing motivations, Maslow's hierarchy, and fluidarity.

  • Socialogy: Interview With John Hagel | I Speak with Joh Hagel about the innovation at the edge.

  • Complex organisation arises from webs of interaction among causal factors | So, it turns out that DNA is, in fact, a great metaphor for business culture, but only after you realize that DNA is not a few hundred off-on switches, but instead a universe of unknowable complexities, that we can interact with, and understand at some abstract cartoonish level, but not control, and never fully comprehend.

  • Bitcoin May Be the Global Economy’s Last Safe Haven | Paul Ford

  • Innovators Get Better With Age | Companies make a mistake by relying too much on the innoations of the young, because Nobel laureats don't come into their prime until their 50s.

    • Oldie

  • Infodemics | 2009 | Passing incomplete or inaccurate information about some risk event can make people take actions that increase the damage of the event itself.

    • Lynx theme created by Andrew Stichbury for Tumblr.