Blogbytes: lessons from the herd with NOTW

The Most popular Marketing Society blog article over the summer was by Alex Batchelor on lessons in normative herd behaviour from the News of the World.

He wrote: ‘Amid the hysteria surrounding the News of the World (NOTW), what interests me are the lessons in human behaviour. We are a herd species (cf Mark Earls, author of HERD) and our behaviour continues to be affected by those around us. This current story, however it plays out, is a lesson in group behaviour.

‘Next time, as a marketer, or as a member of any group, you see something that you strongly believe is wrong, being perpetrated with a sketchy justification, how are you going to react?

‘What we are really seeing in all the discussions are the pernicious effects of suspicion in undermining any resolution to disputes. When I am suspicious of the intentions of those involved I can be blind to outcomes that I would accept in a less-emotional environment – and I can see even well-intentioned proposals as hostile.

‘As Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, says: “We are feeling machines that also think and not thinking machines that also feel.” Suspicion, once created, lingers for a very long time and this shows the importance in all walks of life of a reputation for honesty and fairness.

‘I can promise that the fastest way to prolong the feelings of anger, contempt and sadness is if we feel that actions of those involved are insufficiently penitent, or if we feel that their penitence is insincere.

‘So, the sad lessons for marketing are that you should never underestimate the value of a reputation for honesty and fairness (although you may not think you need them until it is too late) – and that suspicion and democracy are powerful weapons against even the most powerful.’

Alex Batchelor is the COO of BrainJuicer

http://blog.marketing-soc.org.uk