Friday, June 25, 2010

We Humans are Social Animals

The herd crowd questions Mark EarlsImage by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten via Flickr
According to the new book titled "Herd" that I've picked up and just started the first few pages.  It'll have to wait until I finish "Rework" today :)
Caught this excerpt from one of the blogs that I follow Inc.com by Max Chafkin.

Social networking? Feels kinda like falling in love. Over at Fast Company, Adam Penenberg talks to neuroeconomist Paul Zak who discovered that social networking--much like falling in love--triggers our brains to release of a "generosity-trust" chemical. Says Penenberg, "That should be a wake-up call for every company." In Zak's lab, Penenberg subjects himself to various experiments to find out why humans are "compelled to be social animals online and off" and what that could mean for brands, companies, and marketers.
This is a similar concept that I'm reading about in the book "Herd" and it is interesting that though we all insist on being individuals and having our own style, values, opinions...often times we see crowds of people sharing the same interest, activities, values, opinions.  Kind of makes sense, since if we were true "individuals", and no one shared our opinions and activities, etc. we would have no one to talk to about them - pretty boring I would say.

I'll give an update on my thoughts on this after finishing "Herd".  Stay tuned.
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