Dramatic title, I know, but one of my biggest frustrations for much of my life was how unreceptive to logical arguments many of my fellow men and women seemed to be. As a huge geek and a unashamed bookworm, I felt I had all the science to make anyone understand why God couldn’t exist, or how minimum wage harms the poor, or why the blank slate approach to understanding human psychology was flawed, yet nobody was interested. Indeed, it seemed the more flawless the logic and the more numerous the syllogisms, the less impact I had. Not to mention, the less I got invited to parties.
Our rational neocortexes are the most recent arrivals on the block, and can at best ride shotgun and politely suggest routes while the hypothalamus got its primitive, emotional and irrational hands on the wheel. Our motivations, drives and desires rules our lives, and if one is to communicate effectively with people this is the first lesson.
In fall quarter 2007, researchers posted messages in the bathrooms of two DU undergraduate residence halls. The messages said things like, “Poo on you, wash your hands” or “You just peed, wash your hands,” and contained vivid graphics and photos. The messages resulted in increased handwashing among females by 26 percent and among males by 8 percent.
All the medical textbooks in the world can not get the message across as powerfully as a picture in vivid colors that makes us distinctly queasy. Marketers know this of course, and that is why they put naked women on everything from sports cars to soup cans.
Gene Expressions sums it up:
Most human cognition is implicit, and we’re really not as amenable to rational appeals we like to think we are.
Take that one, Ayn Rand!
January 20, 2009 at 8:36 am
Found your blog through oracle, just wanted to tell you that i dig it and i am looking forward to your next post!
Btw, there seems to be a problem with your Rss feed making it impossible to subscribe to your blog :/