First off, we look at why insults always grab our attention.

Then, we explore how we psychologically process the meaning of risk.

Why do we behave worse at night time?

And finally, how can restauranteurs use behavioural science to get people to order more food when they go out?

And don't forget we're here to help. From improving your marketing with psychology and data to making your communications more persuasive. Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll show you how we can help.

Every so often we use our Monkey Business newsletter to share useful nuggets, opinions, and findings as food for thought. Sign up here.

You are horrible!

What happens when we’re insulted? And why we pay attention

“Hearing insults is like receiving a “mini slap in the face”, regardless of the precise context the insult is made in.”

That is what Dr Marijn Struiksma, of Utrecht University concludes in a new paper published in Frontiers in Communication.

Newswise reports on the results of the study where EEG and skin conductance electrodes were applied to 79 participants.

“They then read a series of repeated statements that realized three different speech acts: insults (for example, “Linda is horrible”), compliments (for example, “Linda is impressive”), and neutral, factually correct descriptive statements (for example, “Linda is Dutch”).”

What happened?

“The researchers found that even under unnatural conditions — a lab-setting, no real human interactions, and statements coming from fictitious people — verbal insults can still “get at you”, no matter who the insult is about, and continue to do so even after repetition.”

“Our study shows that in a psycholinguistic laboratory experiment without real interaction between speakers, insults deliver lexical ‘mini slaps in the face’, such that the strongly negative evaluative words involved that a participant reads, automatically grab attention during lexical retrieval, regardless of how often that retrieval occurs.”

So what?

Well, the results show how our brains have increased sensitivity to negative words over positive words.

“An insult immediately captures our brain's attention, as the emotional meaning of insults is retrieved from long-term memory.”

Whereas compliments “elicited a less strong … effect, showing a negativity bias in the amount of attention that is automatically allocated to negative versus positive interpersonal situations."

Interesting implications, perhaps, for communications?

Do you need help getting your audience's attention? Why not drop us a line - we can probably help with a new, scientific perspective.

Photo by Timur Weber

How do our brains perceive risk?

What does it mean to people? Is it one thing? Or are there nuances?

A recently published paper breaks it down. Dirk Wulff and Rui Mata at the University of Basel and Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin analysed the “semantic representation” of risk and found five components.

“The largest component they “labeled as Fortune, contained words pertaining to positive outcomes of risk, such as “money,” “profit,” and “fun,” as well as many aspects pertaining to life in general, where risks may be involved, such as “health,” “occupation,” and “children.”

“The second largest component, labeled as Investment, contained words pertaining to financial investment, such as “shares,” “stock exchange,” “stake,” and “gambling.”

“An equally large third component, labeled Activity, contained words pertaining to various kinds of activities and activity-related words, such as “driving,” “car,” “motorcycle,” “smoking,” and “caution.”

“The fourth largest component, labeled as Threat, contained words pertaining to the negative consequences of risk, such as “danger,” “fear,” “loss,” “accident,” and “dare.”

“Last, the smallest component, labeled Analysis, contained words pertaining to the deliberate aspects of taking risks, such as “ponder,” “decision,” “trade-off,” and “assessment.”

Which are most important?

“The component labeled as Threat, containing mostly negative consequences of taking risks, emerged as the most important in terms of retrieval frequency and similarity to the concept of risk.

“The second most important component, labeled Fortune, consisted of positive consequences and other life-related, mainly positive associates of risk.

“[The] three other components capture risky situations, such as financial investment (Investment) and risky leisure activities (Activity), as well as higher-level considerations associated with deliberating about risks (Analysis).”

The authors explain that “the risk concept is multifaceted and associated with both negatively and positively valenced components”.

What is fascinating is that they discover that “the semantics of risk show universal properties and individual and group differences.

"Whilst many of the “clusters” are seen across languages, there are certain demographic variants that we observed. For example, “older and female respondents [showed] more negative connotations and mentioning more often certain types of activities (e.g., recreational activities) relative to younger adults and males, respectively.”

The upshot. Risk is multifaceted in nature and different individuals construct different meanings and implications.

Would you like to know more about your audience's deeper, psychological motivations? Around risk, or anything else for that matter? Drop us a quick email and we'd be delighted to share how we can help.

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV

Time for Bad Behaviour

People’s behaviour tends to be worse at night. Why?

SciTechDaily reports on the ongoing investigations of Michael L. Perlis, PhD, an Associate Professor of Psychology at UPenn’s Perelman School of Medicine and a co-author of the Mind After Midnight.

He finds, for example (adjusting for quantities of people awake at given times), that suicides are statistically more likely to occur during the nighttime hours.

“Homicides and other violent crimes are also more common at night”, the article reports, “as are the risks of the illicit or inappropriate use of substances such as alcohol, cannabis, and opioids.

“Our nighttime food choices at night also tend to be unhealthy, as we pursue more carbohydrates, fat, and processed foods and often consume more calories than we need.”

Why is this?

Well, to start with, the article suggests practical reasons.

“It’s much easier to commit a crime under the cover of darkness, for one. Also, there are fewer people around and awake at night to help us keep our behavior in check.”

But it also suggests there are biological drivers, too.

Klerman explains that, “the neural activity in our brains changes over the course of 24 hours, leading to differences in the way we process and respond to the world.”

There can be positive impacts - for example, “the tendency to view information in a positive light—is at its highest point during the morning, when circadian influences are tuned to wakefulness, and at its lowest point during the night, when circadian influences are tuned to sleep.”

But also a negative side - our “tendency to view information in a negative or threatening light is highest at night.

“This biased interpretation of information is then sent along to the parts of the brain responsible for decision-making, which normally work to control negative emotional distractions and focus on goal-oriented behavior.”

He points out, though that “at night these parts of the brain are also subject to circadian-influenced changes that can impair decision-making, functioning, and prioritization.”

This can create a very different decision-making context.

“Suddenly, your worldview narrows and becomes more negative, you start to make poor decisions, and the mental map you create of the world around you may no longer match up with reality.”

And as a result, the way we make decisions and act can differ radically.

How can you better understand your different audience segments and what drives them? Drop us a line - we'd love to tell you more.

Photo by Denise Rodrigues dos Leal

🍝 The Psychology of Eating Out

Learn why we’re all mindless munchers, and what that means for restaurateur success.

Food is emotional. Anyone who’s been through a break-up can tell you that. So why are restaurateur tactics so often grounded in what’s rational?

In this presentation, we show the power of subconscious decision-making, and what that means for ‘nudging’ diners into coming in and spending more. 

Importantly, we also explored how these nudges vary between different customer groups: what will nudge a MeatLiquor diner might not work in Petrus.

By utilising persuasion (and personalised persuasion), you can optimise menus, ambience, and the service experience, as well as the messaging which brings people in in the first place.

Find out:

🔴 Why people eat fewer pretzels from red plates;

🥦 Why healthy food labels make people consume more calories;

🥪 Why people eat more sandwiches when there’s variety

…and what all this means for making money.

Let us know what you think.

Better yet, share your challenges and we'll show you how we can address them for you with behavioural science.

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

As ever, if there's anything we can help with, do get in touch.

James, Patrick and Dan

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