Herd - the hidden truth about who we are

All Welsh to me

You can read the top bit of text, I guess.

But few can read the bottom half

Here's what it really says

"I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."

Yes, another example of relying on the tech rather than the people behind it, courtesy of my folks' home town

Full story here at the Beeb

Playday - last chance

Couple of folk dropped out of tomorrow's play sesh with me and Johnnie M

Go on, it'd be fun for a couple of hours...

Go here to register

2-4-6-8 Motorway

More great stuff from Sophie and the gang at The School of Life: a course on the M1 motorway

Being interesting and baking it in to the product seems such a hard thing for many Marketing folk but not for those who don't think of themselves as in marketing.

Funny thing, eh?

Free gift: songs about motorways and such

Voices in the wilderness

 

Pic c/o CD Baby

Hat tip to Gareth for this neat op-ed piece by David Brooks calling for us to rethink our assumptions around decision making.

Not sure I'd agree with all of the steps or anything like that order, but the point is well made nonetheless that our shared ideas about how people decide, either as individual agents or as part of a larger group are largely b******* and need a proper rethink

Was writing a paper on the subject this morning and, on reflection, it feels like a number of us have been saying this for years. A number of years. Voices in the wilderness?

Guess it proves the point really - evidence and rationality have b***** all to do with what we humans do/believe

Walking on the beaches

Beeb has a nice story here about the appropriately named Dutch artist Ego Leonard and giant lego men being washed up beaches

Which reminds me, here's some stuff we did with Ty, Alonso and co around the Med this summer. Cool, I think. Marketing that - if not a service yet - is at least worth bothering with...

And here's Hugh and the boys walking...

Herding's not just for Christmas...

Pic c/o Meerkatmedia.com

Cross posted from the Marketing Society (UK) blog

"It can’t have slipped your notice that there’s been a strong whiff of herd-behaviour around the news recently: from Wall Street to Washington, from Tokyo to Frankfurt and on to London Wall, journalists and commentators have all reached for the ‘herd’ epithet as they seek to explain the extreme volatility of the financial markets. Even investor blogs find it handy to conjure up all that you should avoid in deciding what to do with what’s left over of your cash stash, with it’s suggestion of blind, unthinking animal panic, folk being swept along by their peers and rushing “headlong” and “lemming-like” to their destruction. If only people would be more rational - if only they would just stop and think…

All of which we here at HERD Towers think is missing the point and just a little unfair to this central feature of what it is to be human. You see, the mechanics that lie behind the destructive behaviour in the City are the same ones which shape most of the rest of our behaviour and indeed, are probably responsible for our extraordinary success as a species - to the point that we hold the fate of the rest of the planet in our curious pink paws. And now seems a great time for marketers to get their heads around the real power of human herding.

Let me explain: human beings are brilliant at copying; it is our number one learning strategy, which we deploy from birth to death (it’s not something that gets switched off at puberty or upon attaining a legal majority, I’m afraid). We do it all day, every day, absorbing and copying the behaviour and moods of those around us. While it can lead to the “madness of crowds” - as one famous 19^th Century book put it - it is a very useful skill. It saves a lot of energy and cognitive effort: far better to copy the fella next to you than for each of us to have to work out what’s going on independently, all of the time.

As one recent letter to New Scientist put it, we are probably more Homo Mimicus than Homo Sapiens:

“Many animals mimic each other's behaviour but we do it more often and with greater fidelity. Our compulsive copying encodes collective knowledge into our society, and it is really our society that possesses humanity's "intelligence”

Without copying, most anthropologists now agree, ideas, culture (and that includes brands) and technologies don’t spread that well through populations: copying really is the key to our species’ success, even if when done to extremes it can lead to the destruction of my pension fund.

To be honest, copying is much more important than independent thinking to shaping human behaviour and is much more common: as Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahnemann puts it, humans are to independent thought as cats are to swimming. We can do it if we really want to but will avoid it like the plague if we can…

Of course, you say, this may be true for children and fools and agency art directors, but you and I are much smarter than this; we generally think things through. This is a great example of how our minds and our culture distort things from us (in this country we’re proud of our rational and independent traditions). As an antidote to this, you might just care to consider the famous scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian in which the crowd chants at Brian that “we are all individuals…all different”.

Marketing activities don’t achieve their effects by some different means than everything else in our world (do you remember the silliness of the possibility of some special  ‘buy-button’ that some neuro-marketers promised? Nonsense - neither evolution nor the creator is likely to have adapted our brains for marketing in particular). No, Marketing does what it does through the same herding mechanics that every other bit of human culture works, rather than working primarily through direct influence on individual consumers (or even through the direct influence of human surrogates - the ‘influentials’ or ‘navigators’ of some consultants).

Think of our own world: CRM and WoM-marketing didn’t spread by targeted communications but by business folk copying each other. Agencies and providers also go up and down in popularity as a result of this herding: when the herd is going your way, you can’t lose; when they’re moving away, it’s much harder (as anyone in a big agency today will testify).

So our Herd-nature is not just for Christmas or Economic Crisis; it’s not just for the bad times but for all times. Now - when we’re all having to rethink our routes to market and approaches to our businesses - is a good time to get to grips with this. The question is, do you know how to harness your customers’ Herd-selves with your marketing?"

BONUS: Santaflashmobbing here,  here and here

Are you hustling?

This piece from the Times may turn out to be embarrassingly wrong in its prediction for next Tuesday

BUT...

what it says about hustling is dead right, both in politics and in business

   

"His primary campaign was brilliant, not just because his message was so powerful: it was     because he worked out how to make the machinery of politics work for him. He mastered the art of the caucus; he used the internet as a way to find voters and then got them to the primaries and  caucuses. He beat the Clintons largely because he out-hustled them on the ground.

Remember 2004? The reason Karl Rove and George Bush won, despite losing in many polls, was    because they found and organised a new bloc of white, evangelical voters and brought them to     the ballot box. This time, it’s Obama who has found the new voters under the radar: the young,     the disengaged, various minorities and a large phalanx of middle-class white Americans. Of all         the unprecedented money he has raised, he has poured an equally unprecedented amount into     his ground game. Staff and volunteers are right now working phones relentlessly, walking                 streets, knocking on doors, constructing peer-to-peer networks and focusing almost mani-cally     on turning out their voters on election day and before. Obama has even managed to insert ads         for early voting into video games"

Too many campaigns in both politics and business fail to deliver because they seem not to be driven by a desire for winning hearts and minds (or body and soul as we'd be better putting it); it's all to easy to hide behind the big, fancy stuff of "insights", "big ideas", "creative", the ad that will turn the tide etc etc. Even the idea of strategy - as some intellectual or guru like ability to 'think things through' is an excuse to take one step away from actually doing the stuff that makes a difference

The harsh truth is that it's hard to get down dirty (and not in this way) and just...hustle. To do the small things that - step-by-step, inch-by-inch - make something great.

I'm sure you want success for yourself and your clients, but are you prepared to hustle for it? And to get all your team, customers and associates to do likewise?

FREE GIFT: go here, here or even  here to learn how to do the hustle

Separated at birth?

This is Faris.

He wears glasses.

So do I.

He likes Clay.

Clay wears glasses.

Just like Faris and I.

I like what Faris writes.

Faris likes what Clay writes.

I like what Clay writes.

And what Faris writes about what Clay writes about solidarity goods

Go here to stop me drivelling...think I have turned into ee cummings

Hat tip Nicky

Emergence

Pic c/o Pilot guides

What happens when an individual in a population whose members are really hot on copying from each other picks up a wierd abstract movement?

This is what emerges: the python dance

It happens every day, from Africa to Aberdeen. It's only human

Hat tip to Micheal @ Soundstrategies

Biomimicry and design

Pic c/o Treehugger

Another great interview by the chief Juicer: Janine Benyus's great book is here

Nature as an inspiration for design and innovation:

From self-cleaning surfaces to co-evolution of business and customers...

What could you learn?

How making it personal changes things

 

Pic c/o Glossyboy's Flickr

Had a real wierdy moment today

Was helping workmate polish a big presentation he's doing to his clients next week...

When a slide appeared with a long quote from my lovely friend C

Now what she was saying was fab, spot on and beautifully put (as you'd expect if read her blogs), but the meaning was transformed for me by the personal connection I felt. The relational far outweighed the informational...

Isn't this the point of what we're trying to do with the new marketing?

Probes into the far future

Pic c/o Philips

Great idea that I discovered in Brainjuicer's Dutch Oktoberfest this week for researching over the horizon using creativity and the web

Paul Gardien, Philips inspirational head of design creates "probes": creative pieces - 'social objects', if you like around a theme - are released into the world via e.g. Youtube.

Paul and his friends at the company then stand back and listen and watch the conversation that the world has around the subject

Try this for size - the idea of electronic tattoos or the electronic dress

Go here to see more about Philips' probes

Two tribes on the comment box

Been pondering the implications of the Big Sort again, as I travel around Northern Europe again

But it wasn't until I checked into the BBC news site this even from the lounge at Oslo that I realised we too have become just as polarized politically

I don't know about you but the kind of shouting and public schoolboy name-calling that goes for comment here (and in any space on the web that looks political), seems basely tribal in the way that the Big Sort describes the US to be.

Is this all there is to modern politics? Is this what all high profile blogs are to expect?

BTW reminded of the link between willingness to see conspiracies everywhere and insecurity I posted on recently, now where is that?

BONUS: them Frankie boys...25 years ago!

Update on Playday

 

Just a quick reminder (as I sit in a beautiful Swedish Hotel, prep-ing for a keynote this avo) about the Playday that Johnnie and I have hatched for 1st November.

Still a few places left.

No particular experience needed just the ability to have some fun!

Go here to sign up

Oktoberfest in London & Amsterdam

Great day today with John & the Brainjuicer gang.

A small but handmade conference. Interesting and stimulating presos from a host of different folk AND some really good conversations around the edge (thanks, everyone...esp. Simon!).

Make sure you get an invite for next year!

And tomorrow Amsterdam beckons for us to do it all again...

And then on to Sweden to see some nice Norwegians on Thursday.

Harry: whose brand is it anyway?

Susan pointed this out to me today.

Her daughter's got into a realworld version of Quidditch. Brooms, yes; flying, er...nope (rules explained here; other examples here and here)

Just a reminder that once your brand is out in the world, being used by folk, it's not yours anymore. Whoever owns the IP, the trademark or the patent, it's them out there that own the brand

But this is a double bind: if it's not out there - being used, reused and mashed up - it's not worth anything

Seth on tribes

 

Waiting for Seth's latest to hit the doormat.

Meanwhile his blog continues to offer insights like this one

What brands are for: making groups and communities function better or more interestingly.

As Hugh says, indeed

But remember Brandlanders, you don't "own" a group (just like you don't own an idea): you serve it

PS Think I'm going to spend a lot of my time with Seth's book punching the air

How where you live makes you more extreme

Been reading the Big Sort (as recommended by Muiry).

We already know that copying explains why we live where we live, but this book makes a bigger claim

Essentially the idea is that the US has become more polarised (yes, that's with an 's', amigos) over the last 2 decades as individuals have been able to choose to live with like-minded folks: most electoral districts have become more left- or right leaning...

But it's not just the obvious problems arising from living in ideological ghettos so that citizens barely understand the folk from down the road; it seems that sharing your world with people who see the world just like you do actually makes you more extreme in your views. (Remember things like the "risky shift" from your psych classes?)

Think this is what lies behind the angry politics of what appear to be two rival nations, shouting at each other's candidates... (even if Sen Palin takes it in good spirit). And the shockingly low turnouts in most US elections (landslide counties tend to have lower votes so if most of these are clearly Red or Blue, then...). Think our American cousins need to work out how to reverse this or compensate for it - otherwise the rift will become ever wider - something nobody wants.(Curiously, it seems that this is something the Founding Fathers were much concerned with - President Madison in particular.)

And on the subject of what your home location does to you, have also been reading this Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on territorality Download 2278-young-people-territoriality

Struggle to imagine how bleak the life of the young black british male is who drew the picture of his 'safe territory' above (CCTV included!). What would it do to you? Do you not think it might make you angry?

Robocalling America

Regular readers will know how much we like all things robotic and how fascinating and revealing the interaction between human and machines is (about both).

But this practice surely ranks as an abuse of the technology: imagine you answer the phone to hear a recorded voice saying...

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC. You need to know that Barack Obama has    
    worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organisation bombed the US Capitol,         the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans" [from the Guardian]

Leaving aside the interruptive aspect of cold-calling (something I thought we'd learned to avoid...) and the automated nature of the call (again, why would that be a good idea? I've had at least one such call every day I've worked from home the Bank of Desperado and their friends recently, offering me loans to pay off my supposed debts), I struggle to see how this counts as honest, decent or fair. Or something we want to teach non-democratic nations?

Might this be another case of needing a touch of that nasty regulation stuff...? Even the Rumour Warriors at WOMMA might agree, I reckon

BONUS: Letterman challenges Sen McCain on his connections here

Momentum and the markets

Interesting trend emerging over the last few days on the Iowa Electronic markets (more description here and here)

So, whatever the candidates do and whatever the polls are saying, the markets seem to have decided that everyone else thinks that Sen McCain is down and out

This is a function of that thing that all politicians seek - momentum: the sense that folk around us are moving in a particular direction.

Which is what we've been seeing on the financial markets recently....

More of that shortly

Tatoos and Purpose Ideas

Hugh's got a nice riff over here about how one of his cartoons is getting the tatoo-ists needles out again - the Blue Monster has already got ink - it's a great social object for folk in and around Microsoft.

Building on the ideas he's uncovered in Seth's new book which talks about leaders, tribes and brands and - Hugh suggests - giving peeps a sense of purpose (something we have been on about for a while now). Can't wait to get to grips with it.

Yay!

Advertising and ethics

At last, somebody powerful's talking about this, openly

The industry's historical shyness on this subject has frankly let it, its clients and the rest of us down

Because advertising is as much part of society as any other aspect of business...

Go, Nancy!

No S*** Sherlock

 

Lindstrom's spent $7m finding out what we already knew.

Bless.

Seriously, how does knowing there's some brain activity going on help?

Neurononsense, again

Bad Herd, Naughty Herd

Hat tip to Bruce

More blame on the Herd for the current financial shenanigans

So don't you do, now. It's wrong and bad. We're watching you...

(Actually,that's just blogcliche no. 3 and normally used when you feel isolated from other people's opinions)

Mind the shop, please

Off to Prague now for a day or so to take part in the London in Prague gig.

Think there's still some tickets left so come along if you're in town and need stimulation

The Great Schlep

Memo to US political activists:

Stop with the information transmission, please, trying to persuade us of the dangers of the otherside. No ad is going to change anything, I'm afraid. Not sure it ever would have.

Give folk something to do together.

Even when that thing is getting your grandparents to vote the right way...

Hormones and the herd

Been meaning to post on this for a while but, well....

Ex-trader John Coates is now a research fellow at Cambridge. His piece a few weeks ago highlights the changing levels of cortisol in financial traders' bodies and the prevalence of these in

Interesting that one should be able to measure this and reassuring that there is some kind of biochemistry behind the social ape's behaviour. And even that hormones are another possible herd-medium for interpersonal communication (like vision and sound etc)

BUT....(wait for it)...

Reducing behaviour to biochemistry and link this to causality at the same time seems to be a false step.

Individuals' behaviour is shaped by what they sense of others around them (to include hormones now)

Biochemical changes are likely to part of the mechanics behind any change in behaviour (even though whether cortisol is involved in everything is moot)

BUT the cause is what is sensed around the individual, not the hormones themselves

Hormones are just biochemical substances produced in one kind of cell that influences the function of other cells. Not wizardry...or bad things

[Q. is this an example of a. reductionist fallacy various b. whatever can be measured becoming important (cognitive scientists have loved cortisol because it is so measurable) c. the desire to blame bad things on something/anything d. some other mistake I haven't spotted?]

Meet the new boss

...same as the old boss.

Apes in offices? Perhaps it's easier to see after the weekend...

Hat tip Hugh @ gapingvoid

Obama on the South Bank

Out in today's unexpected sunshine was an army of Obama supporters looking for American expats to register

No sign of John and Sarah's gang, though.

Wonder why?

Herd at play at Tate Modern

The Turbine hall in Tate Modern is one of my fave places in London.

A huge, huge space.

Which is great for this kind of improv play Download MOV00222

No idea who this gang were but they seemed to enjoy following each other's whims and flights of fancy...(there really was nobody in control or giving orders)

Also, as far as we'd could see, they seemed to draw folk in from the crowd who like Herd-play, too

Until they started doing cartwheels and stuff... Download MOV00232

Hat tip to Sair for cinematography

Girls, Boys and Skipping

Q. Why do girls seem to skip more than boys?

A. "Boys and girls are somewhat different even at birth, but I don't think little girls are born to skip. Most likely, girls skip because they see other girls doing it, and boys don't skip because they don't see other boys doing it. By the age of 3, girls identify themselves as "girls" and take their cues on how to behave from other girls they see - in particular, those slightly older than themselves.

“

By the age of 3, girls identify themselves as 'girls' and take their cues on how to behave from other girls they see, in particular slightly older girls

”

Judith Rich Harris, Child development psychologist, US [from New Scientist]

In other words, what you might otherwise read as something inherent to a group is established through iterative interactions with peers...and copying

Ru-ru-ru-runaround!!!!

Playday's now fixed for Saturday 1st November 3pm-6pm. No agenda, no prior experience needed, just a few hours' fun.

Johnnie's got a great venue in Borough (c/o Justin) and set up an eventbrite site here

Only a dozen or so places left so go sign up today!

Crowdsourcing as a product strategy

Geoff's collecting some nice examples of how brands are using "YOU ASKED" as a product strategy.

Go have a look (and suggest some more?)

Social search

Pic c/o Kaushik.net

Nice piece in New Scientist today on social alternatives to google...

   

"Socialising and searching are the two most common activities on the internet. It makes sense that the two worlds are now blurring"

NFL around the world: what would you do?

Interesting piece here about how the NFL is trying to spread their sport around the world

Nice little creative campaign but not sure they've got it right.

They see the problem in terms of "getting" the game

   

"We've got to get people to a level of understanding so that when we play games abroad or        
    broadcast them, people will actually pay attention"

Not sure this is the problem, really. Is it?

Also, I tend to think they're trying to force their sport down the world's throats, rather than working out how to make it useful or interesting according to our agenda - say, how the product might make our social interactions more valuable or even how the marketing itself might be useful to us in some way

Have to say, I think the ECB/ICC are way ahead in their attempts to bring cricket (for my money a far more difficult and arcane rule-bound sport) to new audiences. Never thought I'd say this bunch of old duffers had the edge on anyone but there you go...

So the question is, my fellow Herdies, what would you tell the NFL?

Give us kids something to do together

Pic c/o Paola Primary

Ben's brilliant Bad Science column in the Guardian, his blog and his fab book go only so far in getting the world to engage with his purpose of getting us to sift good from bad science:

    "First, of course, we shall take on duff reporting: ill-informed, credulous journalists, taking         their favourite loonies far too seriously, or misrepresenting good science, for the sake of a         headline. They are the first against the wall.

    Next we'll move on the quacks: the creationists, the new-age healers, the fad diets. They're         sad and they're lonely. I know that. But still they must learn. Advertisers, with their wily ways,     and their preposterous diagrams of molecules in little white coats: I'll pull the trigger.

    And the same goes for the quantum spin on government science. I'm watching you all"

These are information-based. They're communication. Broad/narrowcast...

You can read, enjoy and still nothing changes

So quite rightly he also gives us stuff to do together: here's the schools pack for starters.

Way to go!

The housing bubble and copying

Easy (and pleasurable) though it is to kick the bankers and the politicians who loosened the regulatory framework, it's not like you and I get off scott free.

Like other aspects of the current financial situation, the UK's housing bubble is partly (at least) the result of us copying each other ("self-certified-buy-to-let-better-than-any-pension-safe-as-houses etc")

Nice piece by John Gapper here in the FT that explains this

Hat tip Tom

Drink-dialling 2.0

Nice new test feature from Google that aims to stop us embarrassing ourselves after a couple of drinks...

Hat tip PSFK

Here comes Clay...

If you've not been following David's great extended interview with Clay Shirky, you can catch up easily.
Even if you've heard him talk recently, it's worth having a look

Clay explains some of the stuff we're always wanging on about in simple terms. And answers questions from David's readers...

Good stuff, David!

Think tank September

Neil's picked up the ball here for us to vote on the best post from around the planning world each month. Good on you, mate

Go help him (and us) by i. suggesting what your fave post is ii. voting on the shortlist...

CEOs and the Magic Circle

Pic of the great Ali Bongo

Interesting piece here about CEO performance which is worth having a think about.

Essentially, CEO's are seen to do well if the company does well and somehow - often retrospectively - we link their actions with the company doing well

Thing is for companies, brands and people - success in a complex system often has very little to do with what the company, brand or person does: it's mostly other factors (like the economy, what competitors do or don't do etc etc). And bugger all to do with the CEO.

This is why CEO remuneration is vastly inflated: we imagine they are magicians who can make the system work differently than it does...

"Izzy, whizzy, let's get busy/go back to core business/look for new markets etc etc"

PS if you work in marketing or any aspect of business, ask yourself: is your programme or campaign really the thing that makes the difference or is it the stuff beyond your control? Are you just lucky? And what are your incantations?

What to do with your last £15

Pic From the lovely people at Philosophy Football

Seems things are changing in how we think about business

On the one hand, the Wonderland of Lehmann Bros' take on Capitalism is coming into sharper focus

On the other, people are finally writing about Social Entrepreneurs (as if being part of society was a choice for business...?)

Making what you do = marketing

Adrian has a nice piece here on what they've learned at Zeus Jones in trying to make marketing a service

I particularly like this:

    "the flip side of turning marketing into something that’s useful for customers is to find a way to         turn the things you’re already doing for customers into marketing"

Mark, note and inwardly absorb, as my old Headmaster used to say.

BTW They've got lots of other great stuff at Zeus Jones. And they're great guys, too. Go make friends

A bank being useful (?)

Josh points out (via Twitter) this great ING consumer manifesto.

Most banks and financial institutions are keeping their heads down - hoping to get by, hoping not to get caught out. Some, I know, are preparing reassuring messages of solidity and trustworthiness to beam at us all over the next few weeks

This is a much bolder step: being useful. Giving us something to a. talk to each other about b. believe in (if we wish) c. do stuff together with

Useful.

Rethinking Wall Street

Lots of stuff in the weekend press about what the big changes in the financial sector signify. Lots "end of the road" stuff, which I'm sure you've read. But here's two pieces you might not have had time for:

1. An interesting contribution in Newsweek this week to the debate around the stumble of US-led  Capitalism by Francis Fukyama, here

Particularly interesting because Fukyama was over a decade ago widely touted by the neo-cons (and the rest of us) to be hailing the final triumph of economic liberalism of the Reagan years over socialism in all its forms

2. Michael Tomasky the Guardian America editor is blunter: he argues that the US stumble is a slide, that it's well underway and that this will shape the November election result.

3. Madeleine Bunting praises Thomas Frank's 2001 (rather ranty IMHO) One Market Under God

Interesting what happens with a little economic turbulence...

Ghostbiking

Today's Observer draws attention to the Ghostbike phenomenon and its spread around the world.

First sightings were in St Louis (some say San Francisco) in 2003 but since then 68 cities in 28 countries have seen these simple - white-painted bike - shrines to make fatal bike accidents

Like cellotaphs but the cycling community's own version, created and spread by them alone. Here's Geoff Dyer on ghostbikes as art

And how do you think they spread?

Oh, yes: Copying

Being useful

We've talked about the idea of brands being useful a lot - inspired by Johnny and Adrian and Rob  but help me out, guys: forcing me to spend 15 minutes with a non-functional transactional website and then (because I'm a SUCKER) getting me to press more than 50 keys on the automated phoneline to buy two cinema tickets - in what way is that being useful?

And for whom?

See what you want to see

Been following the US election v closely, even though I am a Brit, living in Britain and not a US citizen.

It just feels as if it is inappropriate to comment. Indeed, as Jonathan Freedland notes, this inappropriateness is often made very and directly clear by certain US citizens.

What strikes me - from reading the online comments about what peeps are saying about the Republican VP Candidate - both over there or over here - is how partisan folk are. How they see what they want to see and not what is said.

Comments are more like expressions of tribal loyalty. They seek agreement or vanquishing those who disagree.

As if the commenter sensed a threat or potential damage to the tribe or its interests...rather than a balanced view of what's being discussed. I'm beginning to feel that this is a large factor shaping the tone of quite a lot of online commenting (of course, anomymity etc help encourage it).

(Just so you The same is true btw over here and here re reappointment of Peter Mandelson to Brown's cabinet)

On the other hand, Adriana has pointed out this interesting piece of research from Wharton:

 "We focus on incidental emotions, emotions triggered by a prior experience that is irrelevant to the current situation"

How often is this what's going on? Other unhappiness/fear/general grumpiness being played out?

Just think it's important to remember that what folk do and say (online) is often not much to do with the thing they're talking about or commenting on but rather a. their interest group's interest b. how they feel because of other things...(and much of that will be the result of interaction with other peeps)

Cellotaphs in advertising

Hat tip to Luc

More off-roaders here and here

Conspiracy and Insecurity

Hat Tip: Huw

Quite like this thought: insecurity and excessive pattern-seeking seem to run together.

Rather like the flip, too: conspiracy theorists are more insecure than the rest of us

(see what I did there)