Blue Collar Scientist

New research shows that when you see this:

you act more creatively.

To assess the effects of brands on behavior, the researchers selected two competing brands, both well respected by consumers, with distinct and well-defined brand personalities. “Apple has worked for many years to develop a brand character associated with nonconformity, innovation and creativity,” said Chartrand, “and IBM is viewed by consumers as traditional, smart and responsible.”

The team conducted an experiment in which 341 university students completed what they believed was a visual acuity task, during which either the Apple or IBM logo was flashed so quickly that they were unaware they had been exposed to the brand logo.

The participants were then asked to list all the different ways they could think of to use a brick. Those who had been exposed to the Apple logo listed a lot more different uses for bricks. Not only that, but their uses were considered to be more creative by independent judges.

The research is groundbreaking in at least one area:

“This is the first clear evidence that subliminal brand exposures can cause people to act in very specific ways,” said Gráinne Fitzsimons. “We’ve performed tests where we’ve offered people $100 to tell us what logo was being flashed on screen, and none of them could do it. But even this imperceptible exposure is enough to spark changes in behavior.”

This research is timely, because I bought my first Mac in February, and I’m working this week on an essay about my experience with it. Although I have some serious criticisms of the Mac, I’m quite pleased with it on balance and like it better than any other computing platform I’ve used. And it has seemed to be easier to write and do other intellectual-property production tasks on the Mac than on other computers I’ve owned.

Now maybe research is telling me why that would be. Every time I open my Macbook, I see the Apple logo, as well as a JREF sticker. Surely the combination is unbeatable.

Tags: apple, creativity, james randi educational foundation, jref, logo, subliminal

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.