20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — Most of us won’t respond to the call of adventure while soaking in a relaxing bath. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we’re more likely to book a weekend at a spa. 

“Imagine you are sitting in a bathtub, listening to calm music with gentle candlelight. Add lavender aroma. Then as you flip through a magazine, you come across an advertisement from an amusement park, promising you an exciting place full of adventurous offerings. How appealing would you find the prospect of visiting this amusement park?” write authors Hakkyun Kim (University of Concordia, Canada), Kiwan Park (Seoul National University, Korea), and Norbert Schwarz (University of Michigan). 

The authors found that people evaluate vacation products with adventurous appeals more favorably when they feel excited rather than peaceful, and vice versa. They found that processing advertising claims depends much on the consistency between the message and the consumer’s mood. 

The authors explain that people who see an advertisement that promises an exciting vacation ask themselves, “Would this vacation really make me feel that way?” They are more likely to think a vacation will really be exciting when they currently feel excited rather than peaceful. In other words, incidental emotions influence the perceived likelihood that the product will deliver on its emotional promises: When the current emotions match the promises of the product, people infer that it may really make them feel that way; but when the current emotions mismatch the promises, the discrepancy between their current feelings and the promises suggests that the product may fail to deliver what it promises. 

The researchers’ results suggest that marketers can facilitate the impression that products will deliver on their promises by displaying them in contexts in which consumers’ pre-existing feelings are likely to match the product’s claims. “Exciting sports events are a better arena for advertising exciting vacations than for advertising serene vacations, not only because an exciting vacation may match the audience’s general preferences, but also because an exciting vacation will match the audience’s current feelings,” the authors conclude.

For full article, please click here.

I suppose this makes accurate emotional measurement all the more important. Check out the work I’ve been doing with Resonance Strategies. Great work for marketing, branding, and change initiatives for those who aren’t too fearful. In the consulting work I’ve done, I’ve foudn that dealing with emotions in a business climate sends most business people running for the hills. It’s not rational, it’s emotional! Despite their fears, emotion is still a larger part of the human mind that reason (roughly 90-10%) and dominates most decision-making.

The next step will be matching internal branding campaigns to employee emotions to ensure greater employee productivity. Do I hear individualized internal branding calling? What about individualized external branding and advertising to match ads to consumer emotions and moods?

Savor the day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Posted in National speakers, Organizational psychology, Emotional mind, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Subliminal messages, Employee engagement, Rational mind, Customer Engagement, Guide to Self, Dr. John Schinnerer, Measuring emotions, Innovative brand research, Unique marketing research, Brand Equity, Chief Marketing Officer, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web. 

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults. 

As the brain ages, a number of structural and functional changes occur, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity and increases in deposits of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which can impact cognitive function. 

Research has shown that mental stimulation similar to that which occurs in individuals who frequently use the Internet may affect the efficiency of cognitive processing and alter the way the brain encodes new information. 

“We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function,” said study author Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the author of “iBrain,” a book that describes the impact of new technology on the brain and behavior.

For full article, click here.

All the best!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

‘Man has never made any material as resilient as the human spirit’

– Bernard Williams

English Philosopher

Posted in Emotion & learning, Emotion and technology, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Curiosity, The human brain, Creativity, Life coach, Guide to Self, Rational mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Overweight women’s self-esteem plummets when they view photographs of models of any size, according to a new study in Journal of Consumer Research. And underweight women’s esteem increases, regardless of models’ size.

Authors Dirk Smeesters (Erasmus University, the Netherlands), Thomas Mussweiler (University of Cologne, Germany), and Naomi Mandel (Arizona State University) researched the ways individuals with different body mass indexes (BMIs) felt when they were exposed to thin or heavy media models.

“Our research confirms earlier research that found that normal body mass index (BMI) females’ self-esteem can shift upwards or downwards depending on the model they are exposed to,” the authors write. “Normal BMI females (with BMIs between 18.5 and 25) have higher levels of self-esteem when exposed to moderately thin models (because they feel similar to these models) and extremely heavy models (because they feel dissimilar to these models). However, they have lower levels of self-esteem when exposed to moderately heavy models (because they feel similar) and extremely thin models (because they feel dissimilar).”

This research provides important new insights into how media exposure affects the self-esteem of overweight and underweight women. “Underweight women’s self-esteem always increases, regardless of the model they look at,” the authors explain. “On the other hand, overweight women’s self-esteem always decreases, regardless of the model they look at.” Perhaps surprisingly, overweight and underweight women showed comparable levels of self-esteem when they weren’t looking at models.

Advertisements also affected participants’ eating behavior and intentions to diet and exercise. For example, overweight participants ate fewer cookies and had higher intentions to diet and exercise when exposed to heavy models than when exposed to thin models.

Turn off the TV. Smile. Hang out with friends.

Have a happy day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive psychology coach

Posted in Emotion & learning, Awareness, Emotional management, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Subliminal messages, Depression, Happiness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Life coach, Guide to Self, Unique marketing research, Innovative brand research, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 From ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — Computer scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are working on the development of an efficient and intelligent facial expression recognition system. The system is capable of locating the face region using derivative-based filtering and recognizing facial expressions using boosting classifier. The portable device is being developed to help autistic children understand the emotions of surrounding people. 

A paper detailing the specifics of the device will be published in the journal Intelligent Decision Technologies. 

Teik-Toe Teoh, Yok-Yen Nguwi and Siu-Yeung Cho of the Centre for Computational Intelligence of the School of Computer Engineering of Nanyang Technological University state that “emotion is a state of feeling involving thoughts, physiological changes, and an outward expression. In this paper, we propose a system that synergizes the use of derivative filtering and boosting classifier. “ 

The portable facial expression recognizer locates the edge of the human face through Gaussian derivatives, Laplacian derivatives and filter out non-face images using Adaboost. Secondly, the feature locator finds crucial fiducial points for subsequent feature extraction and selection processing. Finally, the meaningful features are classified into the corresponding classes.

For full article, click here.

Have a tremendous Tuesday!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

A Curious Guy

Lifelong Learner

Well-Versed in the Foundations of Positive Psychology

Posted in Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Emotion recognition software, Emotion and technology, Mindfulness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotional mind, Emotional management, Men's emotions, Measuring emotions | Print | No Comments »