How the Brain Works cont. 1 - Memorable Experiences (Immersion)

Introduction

Understanding how the brain works can help us get more supporters for your change.

The brain is looking for memorable experiences that it values and are emotionally charged. Need to consistently engineer the extraordinary so that it becomes memorable and develops a desire to repeat the experience, ie worth repeating, ie
"...powerful emotional responses supercharge memories of experiences..."
Paul Zak, 2022a

Memorable experiences involve the following components:

- unexpected, ie exceed expectations, something new, etc

- emotionally charged, ie pleasant, positive emotional attachments are created, etc

- narrow focus, ie highlights the pivotal areas of interest, etc

- easy to remember, ie good association to an event/activity/person, etc

- human contact, ie social contact, word-of-mouth, etc

- invokes action, ie acceptance, return for more, etc

NB These components act as a package and don't work in isolation of each other

The term immersions has been used to describe a memorable experience; it has 2 components:

i) attention, ie firstly, the brain is alerted to pay attention when the neurotransmitter dopamine receptors in the brain's prefrontal cortex are activated.

ii) emotional resonance, ie when a positive emotional experience is then created, the release of the neurochemical oxytocin from the brain stem triggers an emotional resonance with the experience.

This measures what the brain values and
"...what gives people joy - that magical combination that makes experiences memorable and worth repeating..."
Paul Zak, 2022a

Oxytocin will increase people's receptiveness. Without the calming impact of oxytocin, people become frustrated.

Then the brain needs to emotionally tag the information as important and valuable so
"...immersive experiences create a craving to repeat them.."
Paul Zak 2022

Identifying and handling the immersion and frustration points will create extraordinary experiences and prevent unsatisfying ones.

Remember:
"...Emotions are inaccurately reported by the conscious brain.......An emotional response is an unconscious one, so it cannot be reflected in consciously-delivered user feedback such as survey scores and ratings......When people are asked to quantify the unconscious emotional responses, their brains do not give them access to that information with any degree of accuracy. Unconscious neural activity cannot be made conscious no matter how hard one tries. Without meaning to, people lie...... furthermore, the answer given is subject to a set of biases, such as social acceptability, congruence with one's self-identity and framing effects, further degrading its veracity..."
Paul Zak 2022a

This is sometimes called self-report inaccuracy, ie there is a gap between what people report and what they actually feel.

As the brain is an energy miser, ie it takes the line of least resistance (for more details, see other parts of the Knowledge Base).
"...if the experience is not sufficiently valuable, the brain will not pay the metabolic cost to become immersed......need to push the brain out of homeostasis and into immersion to create extraordinary experiences..."
Paul Zak 2022a

Some immersion inhibitors include

  i) stress and anxiety (this is linked with the hormone epinephrine; it is caused by
    - pushing or rushing or hurrying people
    - talking too fast
    - lack of eye contact
    - getting too close
    - long waiting time
    - being transferred to somebody else
    - deception
    - lying, etc)

  ii) competition and hierarchy (this is linked with the hormone testosterone; it is caused by
    - hard sell
    - focusing on your own needs rather than others' needs
    - being inflexible
    - lack of empathy
    - carelessness, etc)

NB Need to understand what the brain likes and present in a interesting, enjoyable, fun way. Need to understand people's unconscious bias (for more details, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base).
"...don't ask people what they like, as this is asking the brain to reveal unconscious bias. What the brain really thinks can be different to what it says it wants and likes..."
Paul Zak 2022a

Understanding the neuroscience of immersion to get people on side

i) empathise (understand people's 'real' needs by observing and interviewing people

    - establish psychological safety positions so that people are comfortable and relaxed before interacting with them
"...In the absence of psychological safety, norepinephrine, one of the brain's arousal neurotransmitters, inhibits the release of oxytocin, a key source of emotional resonance during an experience. This thwarts people's ability to immerse themselves in an experience..."
  Paul Zak 2022a

  Allowing people to relax will increase the quality of the information given

  - use open-ended questions to elicit emotional revealing feelings (don't ask people to rate their feelings on meaningless numerical scales

  - listen actively, ie ask questions so that people are able to explore aspects of experience that causes pain or pleasure

 - encourage storytelling, ie make it the default position for people to describe experiences

  - work in groups as people like to reinforce each other's views and immersion is contagious)

  - give them a sense of control

ii) define (identify the challenges people face, ie their frustration points; frustration manifests itself as stress (see above) and can be displayed by
"...feet-shifting, head scratching, curt responses to questions, indifference......finger tapping, etc..."
Paul Zak 2022

"...Tolerance for frustration varies substantially across individuals and contexts..."
 Paul Zak 2022a

Sometimes you will find people
"...being attentive to the experience but not showing any emotional response..."
Paul Zak 2022

iii) ideate (use open-loop learning to dig into the causes, more than the symptoms; use 5 'whys' (for more detail, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base) as a way to get to the core reasons that people are frustrated; need to be willing to challenge the status quo by having a diverse group of people to encourage different ideas, ie the greater the range of ideas the better; this includes piggybacking off others' ideas; stimulate thinking by allowing 'mind to wander', eg go for a walk in nature, etc; need to work to time limits on activities as this helps focus the brain.

iv) prototype (continually evaluate possible relevant solutions, ie conduct small-scale trial runs.

Remember

"...relevance determines the neural processing devoted to the experience......the brain is willing to devote more resources to activities, etc that are relevant..."
Paul Zak 2022

Need to solve relevant challenges to people first.

Use narrative or storytelling (for more detail, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base). It is the most effective way to sustain immersion. Humans are social animals, ie like being with other people, and like storytelling.

v) test (bring solutions to the market; measure and refine; as everyone is different, the aim is to personalise the experience, ie
"...emotion is the driver of value in the brain, so ensure that the experience generates positive emotional responses..."
Paul Zak 2022

Additional comments

Use memories of positive experiences to encourage immersion. Memories are easily evoked by music, smell, colour, visuals, words, rewards, promotions, etc; the more senses involved, the stronger the memories.

"...when prototyping and testing the more innovative or unusual experiences, you will run into a different obstacle: people lack a reference point when trying to describe whether and, especially why, they like or dislike the offering..."
Paul Zak 2022a

NB
"...The brain loves 'new', so build in surprises, but not too much surprise..."
Paul Zak 2022a)

Then continue iteration, while being careful as
"...Iterative design changes are typically only unconsciously perceived..."
Paul Zak 2022a

Whether people become involved depends upon the emotional value people derive from it, ie it is emotion that drive decisions.

Words are important in determining the emotional response; the more positive words used to describe an experience, the greater the immersion and the less the frustration.

There is equipment available to record the neurological reactions of people to different experiences; these neural insights help determine what people
"...really value, what brings them joy, and what reduces or eliminates their pain and frustration..."
Paul Zak 2022a

Remember

"...the brain hides emotional responses from conscious awareness..."
Paul Zak 2022a

Social contagion

Immersion is contagious, ie when somebody is experiencing immersion, people around are influenced positively.

Pain points, interestingly, are diminished when a group of people shares a positive experience