A study to be published in the journal Psychological Science shows that many people harbor an anti-creativity bias that they are generally not aware of. Despite professing a desire for creative thinking, most people are actually unable to identify a creative idea when they encounter one.

Instead, they associate creativity with words like "agony," "vomit" and "poison". They also rejected novel ideas for products that employed new technologies.

The study, "The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas," also revealed that novelty in itself made people squirm: test subjects did not like the idea of a nanotechnology-powered running shoe with the ability to adjust fabric thickness and reduce blisters. Even objective evidence was found not to reduce resistance to new ideas. Anti-creativity bias was found to be unconscious, like racism: the bias was also so subtle that they were simply unaware of it, leaving them unable to recognize creativity.

More at the link.

In this mind blowing presentation, Jeremy Rifkin talks about the discovery of mirror neurons which cause empathy between beings (not just human beings).

Historically, human beings are all soft wired to be empathetic towards those within a defined group, tribe, religion, nation. The first drive is to belong. Those outside the group are considered the ‘other.’

Without the event of death, there’s no empathy. It’s the shared framework of life and death that causes us to empathize with the plight of others, even animals.

Will the combination of technology and empathy drive the human race to embrace all civilization as our extended family?

And since this is a marketing and advertising blog, what impact will this discovery and the resulting ideas have on the understanding of human needs and wants? It certainly makes demographics and segmentation seem archaic.

Provocative stuff.

Love to hear what you think in the comments.

Great film on motivational behaviour. The animation added to the talk makes it even more interesting.