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People imitate what others do. We do this because the actions of others provide us with intel on a given situation. Psychologists call this “social proof,” which is a phenomenon where people imitate the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. We follow suit because it reduces our […]

If you graduated from college between 2006 and today, you’re part of a generation dealing with a new normal. With freshly pressed college degrees in hand, we walked optimistically into the great recession. It was/is hard.  Today our cherished college degrees aren’t getting us the jobs we want, to pay for the houses we can’t […]

The content creation machine is out of control.  With corporate blogs cranking out pages of seemingly innocuous content, choking the internet to the gills with re-purposed “Top 5” lists, we’re losing sight of what quality writing is. What’s missing in this flood of content is risk, the risk of being disagreed with, the risk of […]

Facts, data, and statistics are great. They help to root claims in reality. However, they’re just cold numbers, and numbers are hard to put into context. But stories are vivid and memorable and our brains are hardwired to recall and react to them. Here are three examples of how storytelling can be used to positively […]

It’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it. In fact the “how” significantly impacts the “what.” Don’t tell me how cool you are, show me. The choice of medium plays an important role in how your story is told.

Perfection is impossible. And worse still, it’s subjective. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Saturday Night Live thrives on shipping what is good this week. The format of the show does not allow for the pursuit of perfection. It improvises in the face of bad material. Some sketches are hilarious […]

Why do we remember the things we do? Why are certain messages or images memorable? Not just in advertising, but in the larger world? How do we process the worlds around us? To understand this we need to go back, way back.

Building trust? That’s one way to look at it…

In 1974 cognitive psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky identified what is known as the “anchoring heuristic.”  A heuristic is essentially a mental shortcut or rule of thumb the brain uses to simplify complex problems in order to make decisions (also known as a cognitive bias). The anchoring bias describes the common human tendency to […]

Remember your first job? I do. I started work at Demoulas Market Basket — a prominent grocery store in New Hampshire and Massachusetts — when I was 15, bagging groceries, pushing carts, etc,. When you work in the checkout (called “the front end”) you’re either a bagger, cashier, assistant front end manager, or front end […]

Do first impressions matter? Do we make decisions based on information we collect in the first minute of an experience? As in turns out, in many cases a first impression is all the brain needs to make a decision. Take ancient cavemen for example, if something looks like a lion, then it is a lion. […]

Your work environment matters. The desks, the chairs, the paint color, the pictures on the wall, and of course, your coworkers. These elements create a landscape that sends a signal to employees encouraging them to act in certain ways. Often times, you’ll hear how creative professionals need to work in an inspirational/creative environment. This “inspiration” […]

I spent my first couple years after college working as an ad agency account executive. It was busy, crazy, awesome, stressful, and (in between the madness) fun. I learned some things. These are those things:

First off, calm down, this is not a Facebook-hating post. The following is an observation of an interaction that takes places on a platform that just happens to be called Facebook, and its resulting effect. But first, let’s lay the groundwork, which requires an understanding of comparison.

According to sociologist Robert Merton much strain is caused by the discrepancy between culturally defined goals and the institutionalized means available to achieve these goals. And while this statement is driven by an explanation for why crime occurs (meaning if there’s no legit way to make money I’ll just steal), it highlights why comparison causes […]