Persuasion Research: A Small Number of People Have the Ability to Shut Part of Your Brain Down
Kevin Hogan
...and how this will affect you...or...how you will use it to affect others...
There are two types of people who can shut down parts of your brain without
you ever knowing it! One type are beautiful women (no big surprise!).
The more surprising type are Christian speakers that Christian audience members believe have the ability to heal.
We've known for sometime that when humans attribute uniquely special
"powers" to certain other people, that those attributing are more
likely to blindly follow the charismatic leader.
The reason, of course, is simple. You believe.
Gail Hurt was nice enough to send me the multi-departmental study
done at Aarhaus University in Denmark.
Specifically, in this study, if Christians in an audience believed
the speaker to have healing abilities, two areas in the front of their
brain were pretty much turned to the "off" position.
Equally as interesting as the fMRI results were the after-the-fact
reports that those whose executive functioning had been affected
reported as being "in God's presence".
Why is This Important in the Persuasion Arena?
KEYPOINT: This is important to you because if people have a negative
perception of you, it will be much more difficult to influence them.
And, if they have a positive perception of you, influence and
communication in general become more free flowing.
Research by Richeson and Shelton in 2003 revealed that some white
people have activation in certain frontal portions of the brain when
viewing pictures of black people. This is interesting because when
humans view images of friends and family, they tend to have these
regions de-activated. (also Bartels and Zeki in 2004)
Further, Wrega in 2006 showed that women primed with positive
stereotypes did better in a task.
KEYPOINT: "Establishing negative assumptions about a person or group
seems to impair communication even at the level of executive
processing, whereas positive assumptions by contrast may facilitate
communication." (Schjoedt, et al 2010)
Hundreds of studies reveal that first impressions and even nonconscious
priming can change people's feelings and decision-making in reference
to another person or group of people.
In hypnosis, a goal of the practitioner is to bypass the anti-suggestive
barrier (this same executive functioning region of the brain). It
appears that belief is what flips the switch. If you believe in the
person, you flip the switch off. If you don't, the executive function
continues to carry on.
More on this fascinating phenomena ... 
Continue: Page | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Kevin Hogan
Network 3000 Publishing
3432 Denmark #108
Eagan, MN 55123
(612) 616-0732
Stock photography appears under license with Stockexpert. Video appears under license with istockphoto/Yuri_Arcurs.
