Category: research
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The Need To Belong
If people don’t get enough social interaction they can literally die. In this HumanTech podcast episode we explore the powerful drive we all have — the need to belong. HumanTech is a podcast at the intersection of humans, brain science, and technology. Your hosts Guthrie and Dr. Susan Weinschenk explore how behavioral and brain science…
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The Science Of Decisions
How we really make our decisions may surprise you. In this HumanTech podcast we explore the newest research on decision-making. HumanTech is a podcast at the intersection of humans, brain science, and technology. Your hosts Guthrie and Dr. Susan Weinschenk explore how behavioral and brain science affects our technologies and how technologies affect our brains.…
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The Next 100 Things You Need To Know About People: #112 — More nouns = more clicks
If you’ve ever had to name a button on a website, app, or landing page, then you’ve probably had the moment where you’re going back and forth between options. Do I name the button “Sign up” or “Register”? Do I use “Donate Now” or “Be a Donor”? Is there a way to word requests, or buttons that encourages people…
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The Next 100 Things You Need To Know About People: #111 — When People Feel Connected, They Work Harder
Gregory Walton is a professor at Stanford who has studied the important effects of belonging on behavior. In one of his experiments, Walton (2012) found that when college students believed they shared a birthday with another student, they were more motivated to complete a task with that student and performed better on the task than…
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Digital Expectations Report From Razorfish
If you haven’t checked out the new report by Razorfish: DIGITAL DOPAMINE: 2015 GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING REPORT, you may want to check it out sooner rather than later. And I’m not just saying that because I’m in it! (The report contains a one page interview I did with one of their staff — page 29). It’s…
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What Would Make An Animated Character Appear “Creepy”?
Have you ever stopped to think about animated characters? With the capabilities of graphics these days it’s possible for an animated character to look just like a real person. And then there are still cartoon characters created that look nothing like real people. Have you ever experienced an animated character that “creeped” you out? Animators…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #15-24
For this post I’ve put 10 ways to persuade and motivate altogether in one post! 15. Talk first – Research shows that people like to follow a leader and that the person who talks first when a group gets together becomes the leader. 16. Give a gift – When someone gives you a gift you…
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365 Ways To Persuade And Motivate: #9 Give Feedback Without Praise
During this series on 365 Ways To Persuade and Motivate I’ve had a few posts about rewards and also some about the desire for mastery. One way to reward people is to give them praise (“Wow, you did a great job on that report”). And because we want to motivate people, and we think praise…
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365 Ways to Persuade And Motivate: #5 Point Out How People Are Connected
When people feel connected to each other then they are more motivated to work together. Even pointing out how people are connected in small ways affects behavior. Gregory Walton is a professor at Stanford who has studied the effects of belonging on behavior. In one of his experiments, Walton found that when college students believed…
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365 Ways To Persuade & Motivate: #2 Use The Word “Because”
In the first blog post of this new “365” series I cited new research on eye contact. But sometimes I think it’s important to go back to “foundational” (i.e. old!) research. So #2 in the series comes from research conducted in 1978. Ellen Langer (Professor of Psychology at Harvard) published a research study about the…
