Hiring a social media manager or a salesperson? Maybe you should have the finalists’ brains scanned in an fMRI.
A larger orbital prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with decision-making and cognitive processing, has been shown to correlate with greater social skills, according to a study by a team of UK researchers. Among the scientists was Robin Dunbar, who pioneered the idea that the average human is limited to a social circle of about 150 people (see Your Brain’s Twitter Limit: 150 Real Friends), a constant now known as the Dunbar number.
Gaming companies know a lot about how to light up your brain – to be successful, a game has to be engaging from the start and addictive enough to keep the player coming back. Some video game makers have employed neuromarketing technology to test aspects of game play. We rarely do infographic posts here, but this is one that might be interesting to our readers:
Ever wondered how you were supposed to keep up with the never-ending stream of content and data in your life? Not to worry, the elves of the Internet are busy at work, creating everything from magical little algorithms that automatically execute basic tasks to sophisticated utility apps that run in the background, taking care of all the minutiae in your daily life.
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant" Albert Einstein
This latest RSA Animate by reknowned psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist (and the accompanying book) is a powerful evocation of how the divergent, contradicting nature of the thinking from the two hemispheres of our brain (and how they interrelate) have shaped, and continue to shape, our world.
Book Review: Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives by Dean Buonomano
If I had a dollar for every recent book about how weird the human brain is and how its irrational behavior manifests itself, I wouldn’t be a millionaire, but I could buy a nice lunch somewhere.
Simplistic explanations of consumer behavior abound. Push this button, trigger that emotion, pitch to a particular need, and people will buy. The decision making process is much more complex, of course. In Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, David Eagleman includes a chapter that aptly sums up the ongoing conflict in our brains with its title: A Team of Rivals.
Book Review: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
Incognito is a look inside our heads: Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, looks at various aspects of how our brains work and how those functions manifest themselves in our behavior.
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