Greetings!
You are being seduced everyday.
And even though you may argue that you aren't getting that much action ....
I can assure you from years in advertising, marketing and public relations, that YOU are all advertisers think about and a very real seduction tool they use is emotional contagion.
Elaine Hatfield is a leading research psychologist in the area of emotional contagion and here is how she describes it.
"When people are in a certain mood, happy or sad, that mood is often passed on to others. When we talk to people that are depressed, we can feel depressed. When we talk to people that are happy we are likely to feel happy and good about ourselves."
OK. So why is it in your best interest to not only learn about it, but to learn how to use it?
Guys, maybe you think that emotional contagion is harmless, more a female, 'feeling thing' and that your actions are not dictated by emotions.
No doubt you've heard about the power of first impressions and that we make up our mind about someone in 60 seconds. Hear this! Actually not only do we decide how we 'feel' about someone in about 2 seconds, but virtually all of our decisions are made emotionally. We then back up our decision with rational thinking. Regardless of the product, we vote emotionally, then rationalize.
Consider this. We are exposed to over 3,000 call to action messages a week (advertising). And the explosion of communication technology, like smart phones, MP3 and tablets gives advertisers more outlets from which to lead us to a desired outcome.
Emotional contagion is used everywhere. For example, the laugh track used in situational comedy's is an example of emotional contagion in action. Laughter influences others to laugh. And it is widely believed that an action creates a feeling. In our example, laughter creates a feeling of happiness. If we feel good, then we are more likely to like and watch the tv show. The more we 'like' and identify with what we are watching, the more opportunity for advertisers.
Seduction is fun.
We have a choice. We can either continue being seduced unconsciously or we can become aware, learn and gain power over the choices we make and the messages we send. We can become active participants in being seduced and in seducing. And really, isn't it much more fun when we have a clue and get to play too?
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