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First-time Scents are Memorable

8. December 2009

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First-time Scents are Memorable

We know that smells can evoke memories – think Proust’s madeleine – but new research shows that first-time scents seem to merit a unique status in our brains. The researchers used fMRI imaging to judge how well people paired scents and objects a week after their first exposure…

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Ants and Humans

3. December 2009

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Ants and Humans

If the late Nobel Laureate Herb Simon were still around, I’m sure he’d be fascinated by neuromarketing. He did a lot to explode myths of human behavior, notably that people always behave in a rational, utility-maximizing, manner. I never met Simon during my student years at Carnegie-Mellon (though I did serve on a [...]

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Go Viral, the Neuro Way

1. December 2009

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Go Viral, the Neuro Way

Much of the content on the web is created by users (“user generated content,” or “UGC”), but only a small amount of that is actually interesting enough to generate substantial interest or “go viral.” A new study by OTOInsights, a division of One to One Interactive, looks at user-created videos and flash animation from [...]

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One Thought Ordering: The New Buy Button

25. November 2009

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One Thought Ordering: The New Buy Button

The idea that there is a “buy button” in the brain which clever marketers can push has been bandied about for years. While I remain skeptical that any marketing technique could work that magically, Intel is working on a new kind of buy button: brain implants that would let you control your computer with [...]

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Hire Articulate Salespeople

24. November 2009

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Few would argue that one of the most important skills a salesperson can have is to understand what the customer is thinking, but that’s a skill that’s difficult to measure. Instead, hiring managers rely on evidence of past sales success (a good predictor of future performance) and the interview (a reasonable simulation of an [...]

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Reward Success, Don’t Punish Failure

23. November 2009

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It’s a management maxim that bosses should dole out praise liberally when deserved, although many business environments seem more focused on punishing failure. It turns out there’s solid neuroscience behind the idea of recognizing success, according to research led by neuroscientist Earl Miller of MIT and published in Neuron.

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The Outsider Effect

16. November 2009

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Trying to juice up your next ad campaign? Develop a clever new product strategy? Research shows that adding an outsider to the mix can improve the thinking of your team and produce better results. According to a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,

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Management Lessons from Airplane Crashes

9. November 2009

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Airplane crashes don’t happen often, and when they do they are no doubt among the most-studied failures in any industry. Most bad business decisions, by contrast, are pushed into the past as quickly as possible.
That may be one lesson – studying why a business strategy proved to be a failure might prevent similar failures [...]

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Sugar as Brain Food

29. October 2009

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Sugar as Brain Food

This isn’t great news for dieters, but sometimes sugar can be a good thing. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, had subjects perform a mentally taxing task – watching a video while being careful to ignore random words scrolling across the bottom of the screen. (Apparently, it takes quite a bit [...]

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Talking Back Makes Kids Smart

23. October 2009

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Talking Back Makes Kids Smart

Once again, I’m going to depart from marketing for one post for another neuroparenting topic. This time, it’s about kids “talking back” to their parents and how that interaction can actually enhance cognitive development.

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