Politics, Advertising and the Brain
As Aman flipped through the TV channels, advertisements constantly hogged the screen. He could never understand why they showed these advertisements. It was not like anybody fell for them anyway. As he was watching the World T20, he slowly sipped on his hot coffee from Nescafé. He refused to drink coffee from any other brand. As Shikhar Dhawan got out, missing the half-century by just five runs, a Bru Coffee ad popped up.
Rolling his eyes, Aman thought, “Why do they spend so much on advertisements? It’s not like I fall in love with their coffee!”
He went back to watching the match, not thinking about the ad too much, though it popped up several times over. A few weeks later, Aman was at the supermarket, doing his monthly shopping. As he approached the drinks’ centre, his hand wavered from his usual packet of Nescafé to the brown packet of Bru lying next to it. What was a simple decision before had now turned into a complex choice making ordeal. What causes this change of mind?
It is a brain effect called the ‘sleepers effect’ . What is the sleepers effect? When an argument is bought up, the source of the argument is forgotten over time. In simpler words, the brain forgets who or what brought the argument up but the brain doesn’t forget what the point of the argument is. Over longer period of time, this argument depletes slower than the source of the argument. For example; during the elections, one often sees giant posters with one political party lashing out at a competitor. When one first sees the poster they dismiss it as they know it is from a rival political party. Over time, the brain tends to forget that the accusation came from a rival political party but remembers the accusation. This can create a conflict of mind, especially for undecided voters. The tolerance debate currently brewing in the country is a classic example of the sleepers effect.
To avoid being tricked by the ‘sleepers effect’ one should never accept any unsolicited advice. This protects you from a certain degree of manipulation. It is also crucial that one remembers the source of every argument they have. This can be beneficial in many ways.
Let’s not get tricked by advertisements any more!
Courtesy- www.elzixfoundation.com Image Courtesy-www.google.com