Mark Earls – From “me” to “we”

Thanks to Mat kindly donating his ticket, I was able to go and see Mark Earls give a seminar entitled From “me” to “we” at the Royal Society.
Rather shamefully, I am still yet to read Herd – the book (and associated research) on which the talk was based. This is despite regularly reading the Herd [...]

How can research inspire?

The question in the title is predicated on the assumption that research can inspire. While the haters may disagree, I truly believe it can.
Understanding the different ways in which it can do so is trickier.
In a slight contradiction to my previous post on “insight”, I’m using the term “research in its most catch-all form. Rather [...]

The nebulous concept of an insight

(Note: Apologies in advance if I offend past, present or future clients and colleagues with the following opinion)
Inspired by Neil and John railing against the word “consumer”, I must profess my annoyance with how “insight” is bandied around. I’m struggling to think of a word more overused and misused (the word “specialist” with respect to [...]

Perspective bias and the anchoring effect

Anchoring is a cognitive trait that causes us to rely too heavily on certain pieces of information when making a decision, such as an up-until-then trusted brand name selling us a lemon.
Perspective bias is a form of subjectivity or self-selection where we are unable to divorce our own prejudices and experiences from a decision.
Both exist. [...]

Facebook Polls could be pretty useful

At the recent World Economic Forum, Facebook Global Markets Director Randi Zuckerberg demonstrated Facebook polls. This, accompanied by an interview in the Telegraph, has sent the blogosphere aflutter in two separate directions.
In one corner are those excited by the prospect of 120,000 responses in 20 minutes (as a question on Barack Obama’s stimulus plan received). [...]

When did we start trusting strangers?

Following on from their (very useful) Social Media tracker, Universal McCann have released some follow up research entitled When did we start trusting strangers?

(RSS Readers – you may have to click through to see the slideshare presentation)
It explores the influence that we wield online, and how consumer generated content – whether blogs, reviews or comments [...]

Is too much information a good thing?

Well, no. By definition. But despite occasional thoughts that I am suffering from sensory overload, I’m grateful for the sheer amount of information available to us – TMI or not. I believe it makes me a better researcher.
However I can fully understand the concern some have over the sheer volume of knowledge available to us. [...]

Measuring the effects of multiple screen usage

It is common knowledge that as a society, we are multi-tasking more than ever. OTX think we fit 31 hours worth of tasks into a single day, and our lack of down-time is being blamed for our increased sleeplessness.
Seeing some of the Childwise Monitor report data emphasised some of the difficulties that this presents to the [...]

The conversation doesn’t have to be continuous

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjamin_ellis/
A strange thing happened when I met up with an old friend recently. He mentioned that he had deliberately avoided me online in the time leading up to our drink, so that “we would have something to talk about”. By not reading my blog or browsing my Facebook profile, he felt he wouldn’t [...]

Thinkbox Event – TV & The Brain: How Creativity Wins

Last Wednesday, I attended the Thinkbox event TV & The Brain: How Creativity Wins. The half-day conference explored how psychology plays a role in brand communications and advertising. The argument is that we should be looking towards the emotional and not the rational.
As a researcher, this is a challenge. Rational messages are easy to measure [...]