Almost a year ago, I wrote a blog post on the “Historical Bias Against Emotion.” Simply put, emotion has gotten a bad rap since the era of the Enlightenment; we’ve largely been conditioned to think that the world would be a better place, and we’d all make better decisions if we were just more rational. Turns out, that’s not the case. We actually make our best decisions when there is a healthy balance and interplay between instinct, intuition, emotion, and reason.
Because of this bias, we’ve actually been somewhat careful at CodeBaby not to overplay the messaging of the “emotional,” or “emotive” dynamics of the CodeBaby Conversations we create. But I must say, I’m seeing this change extremely fast.
First of all, there is an absolute boom of books on the role of emotion in economics, in business, in consumer behavior, and so on. I know, because I’ve been reading a bunch of them. By the way, if you’re interested in following my reading “habit,” you can track my reading list on LinkedIn.
Some of these books are truly insightful with the latest research results and implications. Many are not much more than “me too” attempts to join the parade.
Here are a few of the books I’ve found particularly useful in no particular order.
Decartes Error is a profoundly interesting book written by University of Southern California Behavioral Neurologist and Neuroscientist, António Damásio. Key ideas are around viewing the brain and reasoning from a more holistic perspective. Thought, reason, emotion, and body are all integrated parts of brain function. The Brain isn’t hardware, running software to product thought. It is an integrated organ interdependent with the body.
How We Decide is an examination on how we make decisions. Written by Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer, it examines the role of emotion versus reason in thought and decision processes. Lehrer uses very interesting stories and case studies and ends with useful perspectives and recommendations for how you decide.
“How We Decide” was insightful and applicable for the way CodeBaby is seeking to create emotionally engaging conversation with customers in the space of the web, at key points of moments of truth … or you could say, points of decision.
Emotionomics: Leveraging Emotion for Business Success is written by Consumer Behavior Expert Dan Hill. The first four chapters of this book are extremely useful. Great material on the role of emotion on consumer behavior. Very useful taxonomy of emotion and dynamics of consumer action. And the material on FACS (Facial Action Coding System) is insightful and useful.
Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? is a useful introduction and overview on the neuroscience and psychology of how customers make decisions and act. Written by Social Psychology PhD and User Interface Design Expert Susan Weinschenk, the book applies these principles and findings to the domain of web design and online customer experience. Given the existing constraints, I think this is a very useful book and we’ll be incorporating it into our thought process as we create CodeBaby Conversations to enhance the online customer experience.
Weinschenk ends the book with the paragraph: “I don’t know what the next big thing online will be. I wish I did know. Then I could create it and make a lot of money and retire. But I do know that the next big thing will involve something social. Because it always does.” We’ve since had Dr.Weinschenk to CodeBaby and are pleased to have her as a collaborator on what we’re doing.
Granted, we still don’t lead into customer or prospect conversations with the underlying neuroscience and social psychology that sits just below the surface of how we create value at CodeBaby. I guess that would be a bit like leading with explaining how the internal combustion engine works when selling a car. It’s what makes the thing go, but you don’t have to be able to understand and rebuild an engine to get value from a car.
Nevertheless, I am finding a particular segment of folks that increasingly want to talk about the underlying human science in what we do … Venture Capitalists. A year or so ago, I rarely heard VCs lean in with the language of emotion, let alone apply these insights to the domain of online customer experience and website conversion behaviors. Today, it’s a common feature. And I must say, it’s making our story all the more compelling as we’re talking with investors.
But it’s true for experts in the online customer experience space as well. Even the most technically oriented, eMetrics, website optimization, and conversion gurus seem to be getting that humans do the actual “clicking.” And it’s intuition, senses, feelings, and emotion that are a huge part of what, how, and why we click, make decisions, and take action online.
