Buyology - Martin Lindstrom [86]
Since Neuro-Insight, the company that performed our SST scans, is an independent market research service provider that uses its own brain measurement equipment and resources, and accordingly does not need to access any university facilities, it was not subject to the same ethical review proceedings as the fMRI experiments. However, Neuro-Insight conforms to the national or international legislation that applies in the countries in which the company operates, and follows established market research industry codes of practice in those countries—meaning that Neuro-Insight informs volunteers clearly, fully, and honestly about its techniques and obtains their explicit written consent to take part. Once a study begins, the participants can terminate their involvement in the study at any stage; however, none of the participants in our Buyology experiments chose to do so.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A few years back, some friends and I embarked on the Harbour Bridge Climb in the middle of Sydney Harbour in Australia. It’s a four-hour-long ascent that takes you along catwalks and corridors and ladders until at last you reach the summit of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The view is, of course, spectacular. You can see every building, every rooftop, every passing ship. I rarely do things like this—it’s a little touristy—but I won’t ever forget that afternoon. It wasn’t because I’d never seen the city from that height (because I do, every time I fly in from one of my never-ending journeys), it was because of our guide. His name was Adam, and he was inspiring.
Once we reached the top of the summit, I asked him: How did he manage to stay so motivated and engaged, despite having seen and done this so many times before? What was his secret? How could he keep from yawning, tuning out, just going through the motions?
Adam informed me that every member of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb team has to go through a four-month-long training program. The first month they’re trained in storytelling—in conveying interesting messages to all kinds of people from every background and culture. They also learn to memorize people’s names, which they manage to do in less than two minutes. The second month they’re taught how to deal with climbers’ panic attacks. After all, the top of the bridge is a long way up from the water, the staircases are cramped, the corridors are narrow, and if you’re a person at all prone to anxiety, well, this is hyperventilation-central.
I broke in: “And then you spend the last two months of your training learning about the history of Sydney and the Harbour Bridge, right?” No, Adam replied. Instead, guides-in-training are asked to spend the third month conducting their own research, talking with people who work, or have worked, on the seventy-five-year-old bridge, including painters, mechanics, and even the relatives of people who were involved in building the bridge. Why? So that instead of just learning to recite and repeat tired sound bytes, the guides can come up with their own stories. “That’s the reason why I’m so motivated,” Adam told me. It was why he never got tired of doing what he did: The stories were his own.
Three years after I embarked on this journey, that’s the same reason why I’m still so excited about discovering our Buyology. It’s my own venture into uncharted territories, one that no one has ever explored before to this degree. But just as it took thousands of people to construct the Harbour Bridge (including a few casualties), carrying out this amazing study, raising the money, and finally writing this book required a truly remarkable team.
Peter Smith converted my voice, my thoughts, my rusty writing, my bad jokes, and Dinglish (a combination of Danish and English) into American. But not