Category: attention
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Your Brain On Stories
One day, many years ago, when I was early in my career, I found myself in front of a classroom full of people who didn’t want to be there. Their boss had told them they had to attend the class I was giving. I knew that many, even most, of them thought the class was…
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365 Ways To Persuade & Motivate: #1 Direct Eye Contact Is Not Always Best
We’ve all been told how important it is to make eye contact when interacting with other people. Direct eye contact makes you seem trustworthy, confident, and interested in the topic you are discussing, right? All those things are true BUT new research shows that direct eye contact can lessen the effectiveness of your message in…
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4 Reasons Why Online Video Is Compelling & Persuasive
Why is online video so compelling compared to text? I’ve been in my video studio working on my new online video course (Designing For Engagement). It’s a lot of work to create my online video courses (through Udemy.com), but it’s also fun to work on them, and it’s exciting to have people taking and enjoying…
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How To Get People To Do Stuff: #2 — Break Through A Confirmation Bias
A confirmation bias is a form of “cognitive illusion”. People tend to pay attention to what they already believe and filter out information that doesn’t fit with their opinions and beliefs. You can breakthrough these biases, however. Watch the video to find out how: For more information check out: Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast And…
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The True Cost of Multi-tasking
I spent last week “off the grid” on an island in Lake Michigan. No internet, no email, no cell phones. It was different, interesting, and strange. I was actually glad to get back to the grid. But the experience made me think. The major difference for me was that I stopped “multi-tasking”. Task switching, not…
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5 Reasons Why Online Video Is So Persuasive
Let’s say you are browsing for shoes at your favorite online shoe store. You see a pair that looks like what you are looking for, but you aren’t 100% convinced. Then you notice that in addition to the regular reviews written by other shoppers, there is a video you can click on. You click on…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #100 — Sustained Attention Lasts 10 Minutes
You are sitting in a meeting, and someone is presenting sales figures for last quarter. How long can this person hold your attention? 7-10 — If the topic is of interest to you, and the person is a good presenter, the maximum you can focus on the presentation is about 7-10 minutes. And if you…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #99 — Well Practiced Skills Don't Require Conscious Attention
I have two grown children. The entire time they were growing up they took Suzuki method music lessons. My son studied violin, and my daughter studied piano. After attending one of my daughter’s piano recitals, I asked her what she was thinking about while she was performing the piano sonata piece (from memory, no music…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #98 — Attention Is Selective
In the paragraph below, read only the words that are bold, and ignore all the other text. Somewhere Among hidden on a the desert island most near the spectacular X islands, an cognitive old Survivor abilities contestant is has the concealed ability a box to of gold select won one in a message reward from…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #97 — People Filter Information
Have you ever met someone that has a long held belief that they just won’t change, no matter how much evidence you show them that their belief is not tenable? People seek out and pay attention to information and cues that confirm the beliefs that they have. They don’t seek out, in fact they ignore,…
