The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world

December 11th, 2009 / 3:00 pm

This article from the The Boston Globe says that:

“Drawing on philosophy and linguistics, cognitive scientists have begun to see the basic metaphors that we use all the time not just as turns of phrase, but as keys to the structure of thought.”
“By taking these everyday metaphors as literally as possible, psychologists are upending traditional ideas of how we learn, reason, and make sense of the world around us. The result has been a torrent of research testing the links between metaphors and their physical roots.”
“To the extent that metaphors reveal how we think, they also suggest ways that physical manipulation might be used to shape our thought.”
“While psychologists have thus far been primarily interested in using such manipulations simply to tease out an observable effect, there’s no reason that they couldn’t be put to other uses as well, by marketers, architects, teachers, parents, and litigators, among others.”

Indeed; these days, there’s a lot of thinking being done in the area of ‘conversation communication’ and ‘digital storytelling.’ Where the two meet allows persuasion marketers to tap into PR applications for metaphors, which are said to be the keys to unlocking the power of the unconscious mind, the place where most decision-making takes place.

Categories: bulletin
comments(0) Tags: communication, language, metaphors, PR, psychology

Speak first to avoid persistent myths

December 3rd, 2009 / 12:15 pm

This Washington Post article contains conclusions that PR professionals, journalists and an informed public need to know about what they consume from the media. For example:

“The research also highlights the disturbing reality that once an idea has been implanted in people’s minds, it can be difficult to dislodge.”
“Denials inherently require repeating the bad information, which may be one reason they can paradoxically reinforce it. Indeed, repetition seems to be a key culprit. Things that are repeated often become more accessible in memory, and one of the brain’s subconscious rules of thumb is that easily recalled things are true.”
“Many easily remembered things, in fact, such as one’s birthday or a pet’s name, are indeed true. But someone trying to manipulate public opinion can take advantage of this aspect of brain functioning. In politics and elsewhere, this means that whoever makes the first assertion about something has a large advantage over everyone who denies it later.”
“Furthermore, a new experiment by Kimberlee Weaver at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and others shows that hearing the same thing over and over again from one source can have the same effect as hearing that thing from many different people — the brain gets tricked into thinking it has heard a piece of information from multiple, independent sources, even when it has not.”

Categories: bulletin
comments(0) Tags: crisis communications, media, messages, myths, psychology, repetition

Guest lecture to PR students in Hong Kong

November 26th, 2009 / 3:00 pm

On November 10th, I was honoured to address PR students in the Communications School of Hong Kong Baptist University. I was invited and hosted by the distinguished Dr. Flora Hung as well as the wonderful Dr. Regina Chen. The theme of the speech was “Building modern PR campaigns and telling digital stories in the age of social technology.” Feel free to download a copy by clicking the screen shot below:

It was my best effort to ‘connect the dots’ between my own two decades of communications consulting experience and the ideas of thinkers like Gerald Zaltman (re. metaphors tapping into the unconscious mind), Martin Lindstrom (re. neuromarketing and ‘unconscious’ storytelling), Dale Carnegie (re. making people feel important in conversations) and Robert Cialdini (re. the psychology of persuasion).

These are the key points made in the presentation:

No brainer: the mind is the key issue when it comes to PR.
The unconscious mind is more powerful than the conscious mind.
The emotions of the unconscious mind determine PR success, not the rational logic of the conscious mind.
Metaphors communicated through storytelling tap into the unconscious mind where people make decisions.
PR pros need to design and conduct campaigns accordingly.
Unfortunately, the ‘storytelling zone’ of news journalism (which has also been the province of PR people interacting with reporters) is shrinking as the traditional news media business plummets.
So marketers and their money are migrating to the entertainment media and social media spheres, where stories can be told directly to consumers.
Nowadays every company can create its own content and tell its own stories, like a media company.
Digital is now changing narratives; new stories are actually being co-created via conversations with people online.
Understanding the ‘psychology of persuasion’ within networked contexts is a key skill for modern communicators.
PR people of the future must think like story writers and media content programmers.

Categories: blog, speaking platforms
comments(2) Tags: asia, carnegie, cialdini, digital storytelling, edelman, hong kong, journalism, lindstrom, media, persuasion, PR, psychology, social networks, zaltman

The ‘Art of Now’ in an era of distraction

September 30th, 2009 / 1:47 pm

This article contains some useful tips for living in the present moment to make sense of life at a time when so many stimuli compete for our attention.

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comments(0) Tags: presence, psychology

Social networks and happiness

September 30th, 2009 / 1:41 pm

Birds of a feather flock together, says this interesting article which contends that happy and unhappy people tend to be connected with each other online. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Categories: bulletin
comments(0) Tags: psychology, social networks