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  • SPEAKER: Good afternoon and welcome to Talks at Google.

  • We are very pleased to bring the author and entrepreneur

  • Ben Parr to campus today.

  • This Princeton native, that would be Princeton, Illinois--

  • being from Champaign, I definitely

  • respect that-- was also voted in 2012 one of the Fortune 30

  • under 30.

  • So that's pretty cool.

  • His career in the Valley and in tech

  • has really spanned a wide variety of areas

  • from working at "CNET" and "Mashable" to currently

  • with "Inc." magazine and the VC DominateFund.

  • Today, he's speaking to us about yonder book, "Captivology,

  • discusses the psychology of attention,

  • and includes a variety of interviews with thought leaders

  • on that subject.

  • It is truly the fundamental currency of today's economy.

  • And we'll have some time at the end for questions,

  • but for now, Ben Parr, you now have our attention.

  • Welcome to Google.

  • BEN PARR: Thank you.

  • But you've all seen "Up," right?

  • And you've seen Doug.

  • I feel like Doug the dog, screaming "squirrel"

  • everywhere all the time.

  • And we live in this kind of new era in the last decade

  • where we are bombarded with more information than ever.

  • And yet, we have the same 24 hours a day.

  • In 1986, we were presented with approximately 46 newspapers

  • worth of information, according to one research study.

  • And by 2006, that number had increased

  • to 176 newspapers worth.

  • Today it's actually seven full HD DVDs worth of information

  • that we are exposed to on a daily basis.

  • And so you combine that with our multitasking

  • habitats--that's my actual TweetDeck.

  • It looks like someone vomited on something.

  • And this is the kind of thing all of us

  • are dealing with daily.

  • And our multitasking habit, which is not actually

  • helping us all that much.

  • In fact, there's another study that

  • found that those who consider themselves heavy multimedia

  • multitaskers are actually the least effective

  • when it comes to completing tasks and switching

  • between tasks and accuracy.

  • And so you have this combination of way more information

  • than ever and us having bad habits

  • to manage that information.

  • And you have a world where it is both extremely difficult

  • to capture attention and to stand out with your idea,

  • whether it's a project, it's a start up, it's a passion,

  • it's a charity, and having it be seen by the world.

  • And at the same time, defending our attention

  • by all of this kind of information,

  • understanding which things are worth our time and attention.

  • And so that's kind of the reason, the impetus,

  • for why I wrote "Captivology."

  • And "Captivology" is about the science and the psychology

  • of attention, and why we pay attention to certain people

  • and products, and how to utilize that science to capture

  • the attention of others.

  • And so I'm going to talk a little bit about the research

  • I did for "Captivology"-- over 1,000 research

  • studies, interviews with dozens of PhDs,

  • and everybody from Steven Soderbergh, Adrian Grenier,

  • the people behind the Old Spice campaign,

  • Sheryl Sandberg, David Copperfield,

  • people across industries.

  • I'm going to talk about the three stages of attention

  • and my model of attention and, more importantly, what I call

  • the seven captivation triggers.

  • And these are seven psychological triggers

  • that capture attention across all these stages.

  • And so let me get into attention.

  • And so I kind of describe attention as a bonfire.

  • And your goal in capturing attention

  • is to walk people through the three stages,

  • is to grow the fire because you can't just

  • start out with a bonfire.

  • You have to start with the spark.

  • And then you go through the kindling.

  • And then you go and you finally get to the logs in the bonfire.

  • And so the first stage is immediate attention.

  • The second stage is short attention.

  • And the last stage is long attention.

  • And let me explain a little bit about each stage.

  • Stage one.

  • Immediate attention.

  • It is our immediate and automatic reaction

  • to certain sights, sounds, and stimuli.

  • It's how we react if someone does this, for example.

  • [POP]

  • I love doing that every single time.

  • It's how we automatically react to when there's sights, sounds,

  • something like that.

  • When someone puts a gunshot, or launches a confetti cannon,

  • we're going to pay attention.

  • And I'm sorry to the janitors in a little bit.

  • But the reason why we react is because it's

  • a defense mechanism.

  • We're trying to protect ourselves.

  • Imagine if you had to think every time a car was

  • coming at you.

  • We'd be dead human beings.

  • We'd be a dead species.

  • And so it's a protection mechanism.

  • And you'll see that a lot of attention

  • is a defense mechanism.

  • And a lot of it is activating those defense mechanisms.

  • The second stage is from subconscious

  • automatic attention to conscious, directed attention,

  • is when we start concentrating on something like a test,

  • or a speaker, or a dress.

  • That goddamn dress.

  • But it's when we actually start focusing.

  • And it is a kind of short-term thing.

  • And it's run by a system called working memory.

  • And working memory is this short-term memory system

  • that processes the sights and sounds

  • around us and the other stimuli and helps us determine which

  • things are worth our time and attention

  • and, more importantly, which things should

  • be stored in long-term memory.

  • Which leads us-- well, before I tell you-- very complicated

  • system, by the way.

  • I won't go through the entire process

  • here, but suffice it to say it's a very complicated system

  • that runs our attention.

  • The final stage of attention is a stage called long attention.

  • I kind of use Beyonce as an example.

  • It's the difference between hearing and listening

  • to a Beyonce song in the car and joining the Beyhive

  • and becoming a lifelong fan and buying albums.

  • It's the reason why when Beyonce launched her last album,

  • she didn't have to do any marketing.

  • She just got to drop it and suddenly everyone bought it.

  • But it's because she earned long attention over time,

  • building those relationships, building that relationship

  • with her audience, building long attention and interest

  • from millions of people.

  • And so those three kind of things

  • combine to create this bonfire of attention.

  • Now how do you build that bonfire of attention?

  • You have to go through what I call

  • the seven captivation triggers.

  • And these are seven psychological triggers

  • I discovered over and over again that came up

  • in my research that capture attention

  • from immediate attention to long attention.

  • So let me tell you about the first one-- automaticity.

  • All right.

  • So pop quiz.

  • If you're a hitchhiker on the side of the road

  • and you want to have the best chance of being picked up,

  • what color shirt should you wear?

  • Guesses?

  • Red, white, I heard.

  • What else?

  • Orange.

  • Yellow.

  • I've heard everything.

  • Actually, usually someone says "naked."

  • You guys aren't dirty enough.

  • It's too early in the day or something?

  • It's a Monday.

  • Fair enough.

  • Maybe during Burning Man.

  • So the answer is actually, it's gender specific.

  • If you're a man, on average, any bright color

  • will do because of the dark backgrounds

  • of the black roads, and the dark green grass,

  • and the brown dirt.

  • But if you're a woman, and there was actually

  • a French scientist who was like, I'm going to study this.

  • He wanted to find out who would get picked up the most.

  • So he had women wear six different colored shirts.

  • And on average, someone would pull over about 13%

  • of the time.

  • Unless they were wearing the color red, in which case

  • they were picked up 21% of the time.

  • And the reason for that is actually our subconscious

  • associations that we have with red and romanticism.

  • In fact, another study found if you just put a thick red border

  • around a person's face, the opposite gender, on average,

  • we'll rate that person as more attractive.

  • Reason why there's a red border there.

  • I also just like having an excuse to put that picture up

  • every time.

  • But the opposite gender will rate

  • that person as more attractive.

  • And even there was another study that

  • found that if a researcher is wearing a red shirt,

  • a person who doesn't know will actually sit several inches

  • closer to that person.

  • It's like an automatic invitation to be more intimate.

  • And so immediate attention is this automatic response

  • to different stimuli.

  • And it really comes down to two things-- contrast

  • and association.

  • And contrast is the contrast that something

  • has with its surroundings, and association is the subconscious

  • associations we have with a certain color, or symbol,

  • or sound, based on our cultural history, based on our biology,

  • based on other factors.

  • And so a key to capturing attention with automaticity

  • is to use the right color for the job.

  • So example is Amazon.

  • There's a reason why they use yellow and orange buttons.

  • They have high contrast with their surroundings,

  • with white and gray backgrounds.

  • And they perform really well.

  • But most bright colors will actually perform very well.

  • However, give me some word association game.

  • Give me words you think when you see this.

  • "Dutch" is usually the first thing.

  • Give me more.

  • Anyone else?

  • Usually someone says "prison."

  • But actually, here's my point.

  • AUDIENCE: White collar prison.

  • BEN PARR: White collar-- there you go.

  • So orange and yellow actually have the lowest correlation

  • with competence.

  • Teal and blue actually has the highest,

  • which is why my cover has blue and teal on it.

  • But think about it.

  • If someone like this walked into most offices,

  • maybe not Google, but most offices,

  • you'd laugh their ass out of the room.

  • And it's because of that correlation.

  • And there's all these kind of different correlations

  • we have with different colors and sounds.

  • In fact, let's talk about smell.

  • So this flower, I believe the Camellia flower,

  • was used by Ralph Lauren in a perfume,

  • and it performed really well.

  • So like, let's expand it everywhere.

  • So we're going to take it to South America.

  • Problem is in South America, this specific flower

  • is used in funerals.

  • So when you sprayed it on, you literally smelled like death.

  • How do you think that performed?

  • Not well is the answer.

  • Trigger number two-- framing.

  • And so framing is that we pay attention

  • to things that fall within our frame of reference

  • or don't pay attention to things because

  • of our frame of reference.

  • And to describe this, I want to talk about deodorant.

  • Anyone want some free deodorant?

  • Specifically, I want to talk about a teenage entrepreneur

  • named Edna Murphy.

  • And so in the 1910s, deodorant wasn't a thing.

  • And antiperspirants weren't a thing.

  • In fact, this is what they literally

  • used to protect themselves-- cotton pads and dress shields.

  • And there were two reasons why antiperspirants and deodorants

  • weren't a popular thing back then.

  • First reason was that people thought

  • it was going to kill you to use one, to have antiperspirants.

  • And it was going to kill you.

  • But the bigger and second reason was because it was not

  • a thing you talked about.

  • Bodily fluids, sweat, any of that sort of thing,

  • it wasn't ladylike.

  • It was not a thing you talked about in proper conversation.

  • And so Edna Murphy, teenage entrepreneur, her father,

  • a surgeon, invented an antiperspirant for his hands

  • because he wanted to not sweat doing surgeries.

  • And she's like, you know, I could put those in my armpits.

  • So she does.

  • And she gets a $500 loan from her grandfather

  • and she creates Odo-Ro-No.

  • Greatest name ever.

  • In fact, I found one.

  • I don't think they make these anymore.

  • Odo-Ro-No.

  • So she goes out and she starts selling

  • and she gets a little bit of traction.

  • But she's finding it very difficult

  • to get the product above that plateau

  • because of the two reasons I just told you about.

  • Now she had to get past it.

  • So what she did was she teamed up

  • with a guy named James Webb Young who would eventually

  • become the first chairman of the Ad Council.

  • And together they decided they had

  • to go in and tackle these frames of reference,

  • these perceptions people had.

  • First, how do you get people to realize

  • it will not kill you to wear antiperspirant.

  • Well, it was invented by a doctor.

  • And so they really advertised that fact hard.

  • And this is actually one of the original advertisements.

  • And you'll see, Odo-Ro-No being used

  • and recommend by leading physicians skin specialists.

  • That helped double sales, when we

  • started advertising that fact.

  • But they still had the bigger issue

  • of how do you get people to actually talk about it?

  • And so they put out this ad.

  • Now this ad talks very frankly about body orders.

  • It says, "a frank discussion of a subject too often avoided."

  • And it talks about body odor and how you don't have to have it.

  • And how you can use Odo-Ro-No to fix it.

  • By the way, this was in the most popular magazine

  • of the era, of 1919.

  • Does anyone want to guess which magazine that is?

  • What?

  • Nope.

  • Nope.

  • Anyone else want to try?

  • I'm going to take some out to dinner if they guess this.

  • No one's ever guessed this.

  • No.

  • Answer is "Ladies Home Journal."

  • And so this was put in "Ladies Home Journal."

  • And when it was put in "Ladies Home Journal,"

  • it was actually one of the most controversial things if 1919.

  • Hundreds of women canceled their "Ladies Home Journal"

  • subscriptions in protest of this ad.

  • But guess what?

  • The ad changed people's frame of reference.

  • They started actually talking about deodorants.

  • And suddenly it was OK to talk about antiperspirants.

  • And sales went through the roof.

  • And a few years later, Edna Murphy

  • was able to sell her company for millions.

  • And so what she did was she adapted her audience's frame

  • of reference.

  • And she helped re-frame the conversation.

  • And Odo-Ro-No did this by adapting to the fact

  • that people were worried about health concerns

  • so they brought in the fact that a doctor invented it.

  • And they re-framed the conversation

  • by making it OK to discuss.

  • And so frames of reference and framing

  • is this incredible power in which we can pay attention

  • to certain things and not others based on our backgrounds

  • and worldview.

  • It's the reason why if you talk about climate change

  • or you talk about vaccines, one group

  • is going to have a very different reaction

  • than another.

  • And in a funny way, it does make sense sometimes

  • because if someone comes to us and is telling us

  • how the earth is flat, why the fuck should we listen to them?

  • It makes sense, but then sometimes we

  • get into this kind of rut where we miss important things.

  • There are a couple ways to create frames of reference

  • and to change frame of reference.

  • One big one is scarcity.

  • So who likes Twinkies here?

  • Oh, thank God.

  • No one.

  • But Twinkies, as you probably may remember,

  • a few years ago, the company that owned them,

  • Hostess, went bankrupt, right?

  • And suddenly, millions of people went to the stores

  • to grab these things.

  • And it was not for the reason that they tasted any better.

  • They still tasted like shit.

  • But suddenly, they became very popular.

  • And the reason, actually, the science

  • shows that we assign higher value to things

  • that we feel are scarce.

  • Specifically, when we believe something

  • is scarce due to outside circumstances.

  • If something is scarce because it is popular,

  • it does not raise in value and we

  • don't pay more attention to it.

  • But if something is scarce because of an outside force,

  • because of a manufacturing or some other thing,

  • we assign much more value.

  • In a Google example, let's think about Gmail invites.

  • I actually, someone paid me $100 once for one

  • of my original Gmail invites.

  • I was like, why the f--oh, here you go.

  • Thank you for the $100.

  • But that scarcity element does drive attention

  • and drives a different frame of reference.

  • Trigger number three-- disruption.

  • We pay attention to the things that violate our expectations.

  • And I'll explain why in a moment.

  • So there's this one research study

  • where they want to see which things would

  • stick in the memory longest.

  • And so they would give subjects different sentences.

  • Standard ones like, the maids were plating the food

  • on the table versus the maid licked

  • the ammonia off the floor.

  • Now which one do you think people had a better memory for?

  • It's actually a scientific term called the bizarreness effect.

  • And the reason we remember this is actually

  • because of something called violations expectancy theory.

  • So imagine, for example, we're on a date.

  • All right.

  • And we're just like sitting down and suddenly, two giant clowns

  • come and just sit down right next to us, right?

  • We're going to be paying attention to them.

  • But the reason why is because we make an automatic threat

  • assessment.

  • We have to figure out whether this is a positive development

  • or we should run the fuck away.

  • Maybe this is our good friends who

  • are about to go visit a children's hospital

  • or maybe they're about to mug us and we're about to die.

  • Either way, we're going to turn our attention to something

  • that violates our expectations because we

  • have to protect ourselves.

  • If you think about how we originally

  • were as hunter gatherers when our attention was scanning,

  • we were looking for things that were out of place.

  • Maybe it's a saber tooth tiger, maybe it's a potential food.

  • We have the same kind of instincts.

  • And that's why we pay attention to things

  • that violate our expectations.

  • And there's a couple examples, especially in advertising,

  • that work really well.

  • This is a campaign a couple years ago from Patagonia.

  • They did a campaign.

  • It was called Don't Buy This Jacket.

  • They're a clothing company.

  • They're not supposed to fucking say that.

  • But they explain, when you go into the ad

  • deeper for that, the reason they're

  • saying this is because they don't

  • want people to unnecessarily buy more stuff.

  • They want to help repair your clothing if you can.

  • And of course, they'll sell you a jacket if your jacket is old.

  • But they'll help you repair and they want

  • to protect the environment.

  • Funny enough, this ad telling people not to buy their stuff

  • made more people buy their stuff-- double

  • the amount within nine months.

  • A whole ton of people started buying their jackets

  • because people paid attention.

  • It was a positive experience.

  • The Old Spice guy's another great example of this.

  • Of positive destruction.

  • Every five seconds diamonds are suddenly coming out

  • of people's hands and he's suddenly

  • on horses and diving into cakes and who knows what else.

  • But it's a very kind of positive experience.

  • And every few seconds something is

  • happening different that violates

  • your expectations of how the world is supposed to work.

  • The disruption has to match your values is a very key thing I

  • want to mention.

  • There is such a thing as positive

  • versus negative attention.

  • I think about what Nationwide did at the Super Bowl

  • commercial.

  • And the only thing I think of Nationwide

  • now is that Nationwide kills kids.

  • Now I'm going to show you the actual ad from a few years ago.

  • This one.

  • This was an ad for Quiznos.

  • And they had weird, freaky, mutant, fucking rodents

  • advertising sandwiches.

  • Why the fuck would you want any of these things near your food?

  • How does that make any sense at all?

  • And yet, a bunch of execs decide,

  • you know what, this is going to be a great idea.

  • They went bankrupt last year.

  • There is such a thing as negative attention.

  • This make no sense at all.

  • It did not match their values.

  • It was disruptive.

  • People paid attention.

  • But it didn't make people buy their sandwiches.

  • There is a clear difference.

  • Trigger number four-- reward.

  • And so I learned some interesting things

  • about the reward mechanisms of the brain.

  • Most people think of dopamine as the system

  • that creates pleasure but that's actually a misunderstanding.

  • I interviewed Dr. Kent Barich, a leading researcher

  • in dopamine and reward systems of the brain.

  • And what he did is this famous experiment

  • where he took the dopamine out of lab mice

  • and he wanted to see what would happen.

  • And what he found was that the mice could still feel pleasure

  • even with no dopamine.

  • If you gave the mouse sugar water,

  • it would still find pleasure drinking the sugar water.

  • What happened though was that the mice lost all motivation.

  • These mice were so demotivated, in fact, that they would rather

  • starve to death than eat.

  • And almost all of them died because they had no motivation

  • to live or to find any kind of survival.

  • And so dopamine actually creates wanting.

  • It creates a wanting response in the brain.

  • Opioids actually create the actual pleasure.

  • But when it comes to attention, what's important

  • is our desire for something.

  • We pay attention to when we desire a reward,

  • whether it is an intrinsic or extrinsic reward.

  • Extrinsic rewards are the kind of physical ones

  • that you're very well familiar with-- money, food, sex.

  • Very, very, clear things.

  • And they really do capture our attention in the short term.

  • In fact, there was a study that found

  • that if you associate an object with monetary gain,

  • with money, even just a few cents,

  • people's eyes will automatically gravitate towards that object,

  • even after that object is no longer associated with money.

  • But that's only short term attention.

  • Short attention.

  • That doesn't capture attention over the long term.

  • Intrinsic rewards capture attention over the long term.

  • Things like self satisfaction and purpose and mastery

  • and these kind of self type of things

  • that motivate us in our jobs, in our careers, in our lives.

  • And family and order and whatever things that

  • motivate you.

  • Those are the kinds of things that

  • make people stay long term.

  • You need both to capture and maintain attention.

  • But you can't just use one or the other and succeed.

  • And there are a couple ways to create motivation

  • and to create desire for a reward.

  • One is the power of surprise.

  • And so a couple years ago, a company called Skopje,

  • they wanted to get more engineers

  • because it is obviously a very, very competitive market.

  • And so they're like, how do we get some more engineers?

  • They're going to offer a bonus of $11,000 for signing up.

  • That's kind standard.

  • But they decided, you know, what we're

  • going to parody the most interesting man in the world

  • campaign.

  • So they wrapped $11,000 in cash in bacon.

  • And then they would also give you

  • Macoun 15, a oil painting of yourself,

  • and my favorite, a harpoon gun.

  • I don't know about you, but I want a harpoon gun.

  • Can I get a harpoon gun?

  • That would be nice.

  • So this actually, this campaign, got them

  • over 1,000 different applications.

  • And they were able to fill their engineering seats.

  • And so that surprise actually helps capture attention

  • when it comes to rewards.

  • But it's also just the fact of surprising people

  • with a reward.

  • And so there was a study that was

  • done-- there was a study that what happened

  • was that they would have subjects

  • and they would spray either water

  • or citrus into their mouths.

  • And what they found was that the people who could not

  • predict the order in which citrus or water were going

  • to be sprayed into the mouths felt much more pleasure,

  • had stronger member of the task, and overall

  • paid more attention.

  • It was a much more positive and pleasant experience.

  • And so most people deliver rewards in incentive form.

  • You do this, I'll give you this.

  • And that is actually the least effective type of reward.

  • There many other better types are rewards.

  • There's a company called Keep and what

  • they do is they specialize in post action rewards.

  • And what happens is like, you do a task.

  • Like you run two miles, you get a high score in a game,

  • and suddenly something pops up being like,

  • you've accomplished something.

  • We want to give you a gift.

  • A surprise gift.

  • Maybe it's a Gatorade, maybe it's an extra life,

  • maybe it's some points.

  • But that kind of surprise, where people didn't expect

  • to get a reward actually reinforces

  • behavior much stronger and increases

  • attention and overall is much stronger

  • when it comes to attention.

  • Practically every other type of reward delivery is better.

  • Gifting, for example-- you're very used to it,

  • like in a social game being able to give a life to your friends.

  • Even though, as you think about it,

  • you're not actually giving anything to your friends.

  • It's actually coming from the game.

  • It just makes it look like it's coming from you.

  • But it actually creates much more attention

  • because it feels like it's a more personal sort of thing.

  • Sneaky.

  • Trigger number five-- reputation.

  • So I'm going to put this on while we talk about reputation

  • in this interesting study.

  • So a few years ago, there was a study at Emory University

  • and what they did was they looked

  • at the FMRIs of students' brains as they

  • were making economic decisions.

  • I'm putting on a lab coat.

  • I'll explain why in a moment.

  • So they were looking at the FMRIs of students

  • and they were trying to figure out

  • how the brain works while during decision making in economics.

  • And so they would have to make economic decisions

  • with their money.

  • And as you could expect, the critical thinking decision

  • centers of the brain would light up

  • whenever they were making decisions with their money.

  • And this is the actual brain scans.

  • But in half the cases, they would have an expert come in

  • to give advice.

  • In this case, an economics professor.

  • And it would always be the conservative advice.

  • And what they found was when a subject was listening

  • to the expert, the decision making centers of their brain

  • would completely shut off.

  • It was as if they offloaded the processing power

  • of their brains to the expert.

  • And in fact, even when the advice

  • that the expert was giving was clearly wrong,

  • the subjects would more often go with that advice than the other

  • because they're not thinking.

  • And this is a phenomenon known as directed deference.

  • And directed deference helps drive our attention.

  • And so the reputation triggers that we pay attention

  • to repeatable sources, specifically authority figures,

  • the crowd, and most of all, experts.

  • In fact, and this is a fun study,

  • if someone puts on a doctor's coat and you tell them

  • it's a doctor's coat, and they do tasks,

  • on average they will have better attention,

  • they will make less mistakes, and they will complete tasks

  • more effectively.

  • Now if you give them the very same coat

  • and you tell them it's a painter's coat,

  • their attention will actually go in the opposite direction.

  • And they will complete less tasks

  • and they'll be less effective.

  • The mere perception of expertise increases attention.

  • That's why I'm wearing the coat.

  • And so as I said before, there are three key types

  • of reputable sources that we pay attention to.

  • Authority figures have power over us

  • and so we pay attention as long as they

  • have that power over us.

  • And the crowd kind of acts like an expert.

  • And you think about sites like Yelp or a lot of others

  • where we go into those the sites for ratings

  • and we trust their ratings because

  • of the collective knowledge of the crowd.

  • And we trust the crowd.

  • So there's another reason why we trust reputable sources

  • and experts.

  • And the answer is actually from this Edelmen Trust Survey.

  • We trust them more than any other type of spokesperson.

  • And so you can see here the most credible spokesperson out

  • of thousands and thousands of people surveyed are experts.

  • More than people like you, more than executives,

  • and definitely more than CEOs.

  • We really, really trust experts.

  • And government officials are somewhere in the basement

  • where they belong.

  • And so key brands and capturing attention

  • really revolves around leveraging experts,

  • and leveraging the power of experts,

  • and establishing your credibility as an expert

  • as well.

  • Odo-Ro-No did this by leveraging the fact that it

  • was created by a doctor.

  • And leveraging the fact that it was created by a doctor.

  • And this is also the same kind of reason

  • why things like Kickstarter do very well because it's

  • the crowd's expertise showing that a specific thing is

  • worth our attention and time.

  • Two more triggers.

  • Trigger number six.

  • I can take this coat off.

  • It's kinda hot.

  • I'm stripping for you all.

  • You're welcome.

  • Mystery.

  • So what movie is this?

  • Anyone want to guess?

  • That's right. "Cloverfield."

  • So I don't have time to show the entire trailer

  • of "Cloverfield."

  • But in the first trailer of "Cloverfield," what happens

  • is there's people at a party, suddenly there's a roar

  • and then the Statue of Liberty's head falls into the street.

  • There's no mention of the movie's name

  • or what it's called or what it's about.

  • And this is a huge impetus of the mystery trigger.

  • And this is a JJ Abrams movie.

  • He's a master at mysteries.

  • At both using mysteries to market his material because

  • for example, we know barely anything about "Star Wars"

  • and that's what he wants.

  • And also in his storytelling.

  • For "Lost," for example, famous for having that cliffhanger

  • that would get people to come back week to week.

  • And so there are actually two scientific reasons why

  • mysteries capture attention.

  • The first is something called the Zeigarnik Effect.

  • So in the 1950s, there was this Soviet researcher.

  • Her name is Bluma Zeigarnik.

  • And she is sitting in a restaurant

  • and she's curious about something.

  • The waiters who are taking her order

  • have perfect memory of her orders

  • until they actually drop it off over at the kitchen,

  • and suddenly, completely forget.

  • Now why is that?

  • She's curious.

  • So she gets a bunch of students and a bunch of kids

  • and she has them do puzzles.

  • But in half the case studies, she takes their puzzles away.

  • That's mean, right?

  • A couple months later, she would ask them

  • which puzzles they would remember.

  • And guess what.

  • The only puzzles they could remember,

  • the only tasks they could remember

  • were the ones that were incomplete.

  • We have a much stronger memory for incomplete the tasks,

  • incomplete thoughts, incomplete storylines.

  • Zeigarnik Effect.

  • Now there's a second reason.

  • Now, let's pretend you and I are on a date.

  • Actually, we'll go on a date.

  • We've been on a date before.

  • So pretend we're on a date.

  • Now if we're on a first date, what we're going to do,

  • typically, is small talk, right?

  • Kind of things like where are you from, what do you like,

  • that sort of thing.

  • And the reason why we do that is actually because of a thing

  • called uncertainty reduction principal.

  • And essentially, we don't like uncertainty in our lives.

  • It makes us uncomfortable.

  • And we meet a stranger, there's nothing but uncertainly.

  • We don't know anything about each other.

  • And so what we're trying to do is

  • relieve the uncertainty so we can figure out whether or not

  • I want to hang out with this person

  • or be friends or get the fuck away as far as I can.

  • All depends, right?

  • And so in the case of uncertainty reduction

  • principle, it applies all across the board.

  • When we're left with a cliffhanger

  • and we're left with a mystery, we

  • want to relieve that uncertainty.

  • We want to resolve that storyline.

  • And then when we don't, we start filling it

  • in with speculation and uncertainty.

  • The Malaysian Airlines disaster last year

  • is a perfect example of this.

  • It's not the first time a plane went down.

  • But planes aren't supposed to disappear.

  • And so when this one disappeared,

  • suddenly, it was on the media for months.

  • Why?

  • Because we don't like uncertainty,

  • so we start filling with speculation.

  • Especially CNN.

  • They loved filling it with speculation.

  • Thank you, CNN.

  • And they kept filling it with all this speculation.

  • Trying to-- what's going on?

  • Where did it go?

  • All that sort of thing.

  • And the reason, again, why is because we do not

  • like that uncertainty.

  • We have to fill it in.

  • It's the same reason also why, for example, I

  • don't know if anyone remembers a year ago, Justine Sacco.

  • She was an exec at IAC.

  • And she before she gets on the plane she

  • decides to tweet something along the lines of "I'm

  • going to Africa.

  • Hope I don't get AIDS.

  • Oh and wait.

  • I'm white."

  • She does this.

  • She gets on a plane.

  • And then she's off Wi-Fi.

  • By the time she gets off the plane,

  • she's the number one trending topic in the world

  • and she's the most reviled person on Twitter.

  • And the reason why is because she couldn't

  • close the uncertainty gap.

  • She couldn't close the mystery loop.

  • Everyone started filling speculation

  • of how is she going to react?

  • Who is this person?

  • Why would she say such a thing?

  • In fact, Steve Martin tweeted something offensive

  • as well in the same time period but nothing

  • happened to him because he was able to delete

  • his Tweet within two minutes and post an apology.

  • Mystery done.

  • Justine Sacco could not and that's

  • why she became the number one trending topic.

  • And so there are a couple things when you think about mysteries

  • to capture attention.

  • The mystery trigger.

  • One is to create suspense.

  • And I don't think the sound is working,

  • but we're going to try a video anyway.

  • This was one of the Budweiser ads

  • from this year's Super Bowl.

  • And I love any reason to add puppies to a conversation.

  • And in this case, this was one of the most popular ads.

  • And part of the reason is because of suspense.

  • And so you know that Budweiser's not going to kill the puppy.

  • They're not Nationwide.

  • But there is this moment to moment suspense of what's

  • going to happen to the puppy, how

  • is it going to escape the wolves,

  • how is it going to get back home.

  • And there was a study that actually

  • found that the more moment to moment suspense

  • we feel in an advertisement, the more memory we're

  • going to have it, the more we'll pay attention,

  • and the more positive reaction we'll have to that ad.

  • And that's part of the reason why

  • I believe this one was one of the most popular ones

  • of this year's Super Bowl.

  • And so another tool for capturing attention.

  • Can't do another one even tough I love the puppies.

  • So another key tool is using cliffhangers.

  • And so creating the cliffhangers, whether it's

  • in advertising, or in your storytelling,

  • or maybe just a cliffhanger to get people to come back

  • to the next meeting.

  • Captures attention again because of that uncertainty gap.

  • You should use cliffhangers when you can unless you're

  • going through a press crisis.

  • Like that guy.

  • So everyone knows that guy or most of you

  • know that guy, maybe.

  • And this is Brian Williams.

  • And what happened with him was he basically

  • lied about what happened when he was in the war zone.

  • And he put out what amounted to a half-assed apology.

  • It was kind of like, "I sort of mis-remembered, blah, blah,

  • blah."

  • What it didn't do was complete the mystery gap

  • and complete the mystery.

  • And so people filled in with speculation until suddenly,

  • more reports came out to a point where he had to step down.

  • On the other hand, regardless of what you think of this guy,

  • there was no mystery gap.

  • When his allegations came out, he

  • came out hard and being like, here's exactly fact ABC.

  • Go look.

  • That's it.

  • Done.

  • And guess what?

  • He still has a job.

  • Again, regardless of what you think of him,

  • he's still in his chair and Brian Williams is not.

  • But there's actually a couple good tech examples

  • of this as well.

  • So a couple years ago, Airbnb-- I

  • don't know if anyone remembers this-- but they had a renter.

  • They had a gal named EJ and she rented out her place

  • and she came back and it was completely

  • ransacked-- destroyed, burned, everything stolen.

  • And Airbnb was kind of slow to helping her our

  • in fixing the problem.

  • So she wrote a blog post about it.

  • It went viral.

  • Everyone wrote about it.

  • And when it started going viral, Airbnb

  • felt like it had to respond.

  • So Brian Chesky wrote that on Hacker News, which

  • basically says, "hi, everyone.

  • We were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event.

  • We have been working closely with the authorities, blah,

  • blah, blah, blah.

  • It is written by a lawyer.

  • It sounds like a lawyer.

  • There is no apology.

  • It doesn't resolve jack shit.

  • Guess what?

  • The mystery continued.

  • EJ put out another post.

  • The thing went more viral.

  • Airbnb looked even worse until finally, they

  • put out the right statement.

  • They put out this blog post.

  • This one, which said, like, with EJ, we got this wrong.

  • We let her down.

  • And we are sorry.

  • And we fucked up.

  • And here's how we're going to fix it.

  • When they did that, the story was over

  • because they completed the mystery loop,

  • the gap of uncertainty was filled and the story died.

  • And so when it comes to a press crisis like that,

  • your number one goal is to end the mystery.

  • Exactly here is we fucked up and here's

  • how we're going to fix it.

  • Final trigger.

  • And then questions, if you have any questions.

  • Think about your questions now.

  • Acknowledgement.

  • The most powerful of my captivation triggers.

  • And so there was this one study that-- yeah,

  • it was pretty cruel, actually.

  • And what they did was they strapped electrodes

  • to the ankles of married women.

  • Yeah, pretty much.

  • And there were three conditions.

  • Condition one.

  • Married woman sitting alone.

  • Condition two.

  • Married woman could hold the hand of a stranger.

  • Condition three.

  • Married woman could hold the hand of her husband.

  • And so what they found was that when

  • the married women who had no one to hold the hand of

  • felt the most pain because they had nowhere

  • to direct their attention.

  • And the married women who could hold the husband's hands

  • felt the least pain because they had

  • someone they love to direct their attention towards.

  • But what I found fascinating about this study

  • was that there was a direct correlation

  • between the strength of the marriage and the amount of pain

  • that these women felt.

  • The more connected they felt to their spouse, the less pain

  • they felt.

  • And it kind of shows how powerful this acknowledgement

  • and this connection is.

  • This connection is so powerful that it can

  • reduce an even eliminate pain.

  • And so the key to the acknowledgement trigger

  • is that we pay attention to the people and things that

  • pay attention to us and provide us with validation,

  • empathy, and understanding.

  • And one example of this is actually

  • in our celebrity culture.

  • And so this is Adrian Grenier from the show "Entourage"

  • and this is Dr. Thomas de Zengotita.

  • And I interviewed them for "Captivology."

  • And you wouldn't think that they would be experts in anything

  • like this, but actually, they did a documentary together

  • called "Teenage Paparazzo" on a 15-year-old teenage paparazzi

  • and following him around and exploring

  • why we pay attention to celebrities and celebrity

  • culture.

  • And we had this long conversation about why.

  • And we kind of came to the conclusion,

  • one of the major reasons we pay attention to celebrities

  • is because they're, in a way, a reflection of ourselves.

  • They are a piece of our identity.

  • It says something about you, whether you're

  • a fan of Justin Bieber or Rachel Ray

  • or Sheryl Sandberg or an Apple or a Google

  • or a whichever company.

  • It says something about you and your identity.

  • And we are looking for things that validate

  • our identity in some way.

  • In fact, actually, Buzzfeed, for example--

  • I interviewed Jonah Peretti the CEO Buzzfeed--

  • and what I learned from them is that they

  • do a lot of this kind of validation aspect.

  • One article that I read about is that they

  • did was "54 Things That Minnesotans Are

  • Too Humble To Brag About."

  • Now, this article went viral, especially in Minnesota,

  • as you could imagine.

  • But the reason why is because it's

  • a validation, a positive affirmation of a key identity,

  • for a key demographic.

  • And it's saying it's great to be from Minnesota.

  • And Buzzfeed puts these articles and these quizzes

  • out all the time.

  • '90s Kids or from Chicago or works in X industry.

  • They do this all the time.

  • And it's always very positive.

  • They affirm.

  • They go for EQ over IQ.

  • And it works really well for capturing attention for them.

  • So there's actually a term for all this,

  • and especially for our relationship with celebrities.

  • It's called the parasocial relationship.

  • And so it is our capability to feel a two-way relationship

  • with a one-way figure.

  • And I'll give an example.

  • There is-- my old boss at "Mashable,"

  • she works for Rachel Ray now.

  • And what happened was Rachael Ray

  • came out for Obamacare, right?

  • And what suddenly happened was there

  • was a whole bunch of women who came out and they're like,

  • how could you do this?

  • You've betrayed me.

  • I thought I knew you.

  • The fuck?

  • How does this make any sense?

  • It makes sense because people can

  • feel as deep of a connection with a figure

  • like that as they can with their best friend or their families.

  • Parasocial relationship.

  • It's why we can fall in love with a brand

  • or a musician or an artist.

  • And the case, for example, of Taylor Swift.

  • She's a master at parasocial relationships.

  • So last year, she was doing YouTube videos.

  • And it was YouTube videos of her wrapping gifts

  • and sending it to a few of her fans.

  • And this created a frenzy in her entire community.

  • She didn't have to give a gift to every single member

  • of her community, to all over fans-- just a few

  • to show that she cared about them as a collective.

  • And as a result, they paid attention back

  • and made her album the number one album of last year.

  • She did a fantastic job of building that community

  • and building that relationship.

  • And she scaled her relationship with her community.

  • Now there are a couple other ways

  • to build that kind of identity and that validation

  • and that acknowledgement.

  • And it is this way.

  • It is through the power of participation.

  • So some of you may know this story.

  • In the 1950s, Betty Crocker and all the big cake mixing

  • and food mixing companies at the time like Duncan Hines

  • and Pillsbury, they were trying to get cake mix off the ground.

  • But cake mix wasn't taking off with the female demographic,

  • not like Bisquik did.

  • And they were stumped.

  • Betty Crocker's like, why is this not

  • being getting bought by everybody.

  • So they brought in two researchers

  • to come in and give them advice on what's going on.

  • And they figured it out, actually.

  • The reason why it wasn't taking off was eggs.

  • Now back then, eggs actually came in powdered form.

  • You could just have the powdered eggs, you just put it in.

  • You didn't have to have the fresh eggs with you.

  • And in fact, if you actually try these recipes,

  • there really isn't much a difference

  • between a powdered egg and a fresh egg.

  • But what they found was that women

  • didn't feel like they were making

  • any contribution to the recipe in the cake mix version.

  • And so what Betty Crocker did was literally make

  • their product harder to use.

  • And the result was that their sales went through the roof

  • and they won the cake mixing wars

  • by making it so that you had to break eggs into the recipe.

  • And it worked really, really well

  • because they enabled their audience

  • to participate and provide some kind of validation,

  • to provide their input.

  • It's the same kind of reason, for example,

  • why Kickstarter is so powerful.

  • Yes, Exploding Kittens.

  • I can't wait to get my deck.

  • And it's because not just are you buying something--

  • it's pretty much a buying website--

  • but you feel like that you're providing some kind of input.

  • You are helping a company get off the ground.

  • You are providing something extra.

  • You are part of that community.

  • A couple years ago, I remember, Vitamin Water-- they actually

  • asked their community to help name

  • the next flavor of Vitamin Water and actually create

  • the next flavor.

  • And it was a campaign and it went really viral.

  • And they allowed their audience to put their input.

  • And they eventually came up with one called

  • "Connect," based off Facebook.

  • And it did really well and their sales went up as a result,

  • again because they allowed their community to participate

  • and that alone created that acknowledgement

  • with their audience.

  • And so I've talked about the seven key triggers.

  • Automaticity, framing, disruption, reward, reputation,

  • mystery, and acknowledgement.

  • And you'll kind of notice that these

  • triggers go across all three stages of attention.

  • Automaticity is very powerful in immediate attention,

  • while disruption is a very powerful trigger for capturing

  • short attention, while mysteries and acknowledgement are

  • powerful tools for long attention,

  • get people to have long term interest.

  • Because it's not enough to just get

  • people to pay attention to your ad or to your idea

  • or to your campaign.

  • But you need people to become customers and users and fans.

  • And the last thing I will say that I learned

  • from this process is from all the interviews

  • I did with all these masters of attention

  • is that the masters of attention don't try to capture attention

  • for themselves.

  • They're trying to get attention for their products,

  • their projects, and their ideas.

  • They're not trying to be me, me, me.

  • They're trying to get a cause and to promote something

  • that is bigger and beyond them.

  • And that is a much more powerful version and much more powerful

  • form of attention.

  • And I guess that is a sign that it's done.

  • So you know what?

  • Thank you, very much.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • AUDIENCE: I am Darcy.

  • I am a hardware reliability engineer,

  • and I'm curious about this colors and competency study

  • thing.

  • Is that dependent on culture?

  • BEN PARR: It is dependent on culture.

  • And so I didn't mention in this part of the presentation

  • but the cultural associations really do impact color.

  • I was talking specifically about US and Western.

  • Couple different examples.

  • Green is terrible packaging in China

  • because green is associated with funerals and death in China.

  • And in fact, it is a very poor performing packaging color

  • in that country.

  • Red has significantly different associations

  • across different cultures.

  • There are a few things that are the same.

  • Like for example, blue.

  • If you, for example, there was a study that actually found

  • that if you put schizophrenics under blue light, regardless

  • of which culture, they will be calmer

  • and they will be more relaxed.

  • And if you put them in a red light,

  • they will be more energetic and they'll be more jumpy

  • and they'll be more agitated.

  • So there are some that are universal.

  • But there's a lot that are different culture by culture.

  • And I actually provide some resources in the book

  • and some links and examples of different colors

  • in different cultures.

  • And there's actually an amazing color wheel

  • that shows the associations different cultures have

  • with different cultures.

  • The reason why I focus so much on color

  • is because color provides the majority of initial assessment

  • when people are looking at a brand.

  • If people look at a symbol for the first time,

  • the majority of their assessment will be purely from the color

  • as well.

  • AUDIENCE: I'm actually a video game designer.

  • And I just wanted to let you know

  • that I had seen something very similar

  • that somebody had described in trying

  • to figure out how to get people to play early arcade video

  • games.

  • A woman ran a company and she talked

  • about the first quarter, the second quarter,

  • and the thousandth quarter.

  • And the idea that it's first getting their attention

  • and then having them have that reaction of OK,

  • I played it once.

  • Now I want to try it again.

  • And then having something in there

  • that keeps them going 1,000 quarter drops later.

  • And just the games industry looks

  • at trying to keep people's attention particularly

  • on social media games, as you mentioned, like the stuff

  • on Facebook.

  • So it seems like there are a lot of commonalities in what you're

  • talking about there.

  • BEN PARR: Exactly.

  • One of the people I interviewed and one

  • of my favorite interviews for the book,

  • is Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario.

  • And I got to interview him at E3 a few years ago.

  • And he talked me through why Mario

  • captures so much attention across all three stages.

  • So I don't know if you all know this,

  • but the original Super Mario, when they first

  • created the character, they only had 16 by 16 pixels.

  • And they're like, how do we make this guy more distinctive?

  • How do we have him pop out on the screen?

  • Well, we got to make his nose big because that's the only way

  • to see he even has a nose.

  • So they made his nose big.

  • But you couldn't even tell he had

  • a nose so they put a mustache on it so you

  • could define the nose.

  • Now it was impossible to do hair in 16 by 16 pixels.

  • So we're going to give him a red cap.

  • And a shirt didn't really pop out at all, shirt and pants,

  • so they gave him overalls.

  • And that's actually why Super Mario has big nose, moustache,

  • a hat, and overalls.

  • But that's just immediate attention.

  • They really focused on that kind of gameplay element,

  • getting people to try to achieve the reward of getting

  • that high score, getting to the end

  • of that level, and that loop every single time,

  • within a specific game.

  • But the reason why we play every Mario game and love and all

  • that sort of thing is because we fall in love

  • with the characters.

  • We know the key elements of every single Mario game.

  • There's always going to be Koopas.

  • There's always going to be gold coins.

  • There's always going to be a Bowser somewhere.

  • And that kind of element makes us come back for each game

  • because we have the familiarity.

  • While each game is different enough in terms of game

  • play to make us find something new.

  • Whether it's going to a Mario galaxy or a new platform

  • or that sort of thing.

  • And so that's part of why Mario has

  • become an icon over decades.

  • And so many other games have fallen by the wayside.

  • AUDIENCE: I am wondering what suggestions

  • you have for getting people to pay attention to and not only

  • pay attention to, but take action

  • in regard to environmental issues,

  • such as water conservation and climate change.

  • BEN PARR: Oh.

  • Oh.

  • I mean, I went through a lot of framing research

  • to think about that one.

  • Because there's a couple things that go about it.

  • It's really a framing issue, right?

  • It's elevating the importance of that knowledge

  • to a level where people will be forced to pay attention, right?

  • Because there's a whole-- there's

  • a segment of the population that absolutely and thank

  • God believes that we have huge issues coming

  • with water conservation and climate change.

  • And yet, there's still a huge part

  • of the population that will not even

  • listen to you if you mention these things because they have

  • been indoctrinated with years of hearing

  • a different side of the story.

  • Now there's a couple different ways to kind of go about it.

  • You can find a way to adapt to the frame of reference

  • and not go directly and be like, you're wrong.

  • Because that will actually not work.

  • You have to find a way to get actually

  • them to agree on a little thing and that actually opens up

  • the door lot more.

  • You get them to agree on the smallest thing

  • and that will make them more receptive to an idea.

  • There's a couple other things.

  • One interesting thing I learned is

  • the illusion of truth effect.

  • And this might not necessarily help you get attention for it,

  • but it'll help you understand why

  • people believe what they do.

  • And it is purely that the more you repeat a phrase,

  • the more likely people will believe it is true.

  • And they did a study where they would

  • have people go through like 30 or 40 phrases every couple

  • weeks and they would rate how true they were.

  • And every time they went through it,

  • they would rate the statements that they saw over and over

  • again as more true, despite the fact

  • that repeating a statement does not

  • make a thing more or less true.

  • But it actually has that kind of profound effect

  • in our brains and our minds.

  • And so when it comes to getting attention

  • for that sort of thing, it's going

  • through those three stages.

  • It's how do you get people to pay attention

  • to it in the first place?

  • If they don't know anything about it, disruption trigger.

  • Getting people to violate their expectations

  • with something that'll make them turn their heads.

  • I think about anti smoking campaigns.

  • In Thailand, they had a campaign where

  • they had little kids with cigarettes in their mouths,

  • asking adults for lights that had cigarettes in their mouths.

  • And the adults would be like, you shouldn't be smoking.

  • It's causes cancer.

  • And the kids would be like, then why are you smoking it?

  • And that went viral not just in Thailand but all across

  • because it violated people's expectations,

  • and it really drove the point home.

  • But then, it kind of comes in long term.

  • It depends on the audience that you're really going for.

  • I suspect that you have a huge group.

  • There's one group that just will not believe what you say.

  • And it's going to require different tactics

  • and you have to really think about the framing trigger.

  • And you have this audience that thinks it's important

  • but maybe they're not being active enough.

  • And they know that there's sort of a problem,

  • but they don't think of it strong enough.

  • And I think that maybe have to violate their expectations

  • and jolt them out of their complacency and be like, here

  • is what is effing happening.

  • And I'm not sure what that kind of thing

  • is but you need to jolt them out of their expectations.

  • I would love to talk about that one

  • further because that's a hard problem that I still

  • haven't fully figured out how we solve that one.

  • All right.

  • I think that's good.

  • So if you want to ask me more questions,

  • feel free to email me or tweet at me or Google+ me or all that

  • other fun stuff.

  • And I hope you'll check out the book

  • because it has a lot more of that scientific research

  • and interesting stories and more tips on how

  • you capture attention and how attention really works.

  • So I want to thank you all for being an awesome audience.

  • [APPLAUSE]

SPEAKER: Good afternoon and welcome to Talks at Google.

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