Mirror Marketing: More on Mirror Neurons

A few months ago, we mentioned "mirror neurons", which fire when a subject watches another subject perform an action. If the subject has performed the action before himself, these neurons will duplicate, or "mirror" the, action in the…

Mirror Neurons and Sales Style

Our brains contain neurons that appear to express the same emotions that someone we are watching expresses, and sales pitches will be less effective when dissonance between words and emotions is created.

Laughing Matter: Priming and Mirroring

We're always interested when neuroscience research shows how people respond to external cues, and some new research into the effects of sounds may well have neuromarketing implications. Researchers played a series of sounds for subjects…

Six Selling Secrets From Magicians

If you think that magicians and neuroscientists have little to talk about, you'd be wrong: both deal with issues like attention and consciousness, albeit in a different way. And, as it turns out, marketers can learn from both groups, and…

Singing for Sales

Every experienced sales manager has a trick or two when it comes to hiring the best candidate for an open sales position. After a candidate passes the initial resume screening process, one manager might check out the applicant's shoes.…

Buyology Roundup

Both the traditional press and bloggers have jumped on Martin Lindstom's Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. The opinons range from fascinated to horrified, and dismissive to enthusiastic. We learned that the scheduled 60 Minutes…

Feeling Itchy?

I'm guessing marketers of products for itch relief, athlete's foot, and the like already know this... but itching can be stimulated by seeing other people scratch, and even by images of itch-causing creatures like bedbugs. Last month's…

Jeffrey Goldberg’s Brain

Ever wonder what goes on inside a journalist’s head when he thinks about politics, television shows, or his boss? An article in The Atlantic, My Amygdala, My Self, tells us that and more. The intro to the piece notes that correspondent…

Pain, Fear, and Vicarious Learning

Why do people react with fear when they see a snake, even though they have never been bitten by a snake or even had much contact with the reptiles? New research shows that the same areas of the brain that react to a personal experience…