This chapter discusses the magic of human nature and how we are incredibly social animals. It shares a lot of interesting information about how people empathize, lie, interact, and laugh. It is important to understand how people interact to understand how to design for them.
While we are incredibly social animals, testing has been done to find out how our social groups work. Dunbar, an anthropologist, tested primates and found a correlation between brain size and average group size. His studies have come to suggest Dunbar's number which indicates that the maximum social group size (that is close and stable) per person is 150 people. Tying in to Dunbar's research, we are also told that the brain responds differently to the people that you know personally. We are programmed to pay special attention to friends and relatives. Understanding this is the first step to knowing that all social media is not created equally (facebook versus twitter versus linkedin).
The chapter also discusses that uses of imitation and empathy. People can be influence with use of imitation. Mirror neurons explain how someone might react as if they are doing one thing just by watching another person perform an action. The book suggests that using stories can help influence people and gain empathy.
It is also important to understand in this day and age that it is very important to follow social rules in online interactions. When designing think of a person to person interaction and design as close to that as you can. Usability guidelines tackle these issues.
Synchronization can help users understand what you're trying to explain. Using live video with audio can help create a social attachment. It's important to know not to rely on reading if you want people to understand information clearly.
Finally, the chapter discusses the power of laughter. Laughter is a bonding agent between any people. It is universal, a form of social communication, and as you might have experienced before, contagious. According to the book, women tend to laugh twice as much as men and the speaker telling a story typically laughs twice as much as the listener. Along with laughter, smiles are also important to creating a relationship with your customer. Real versus fake smiles make a difference in your believability.
DEFINITIONS
Dunbar's Number- the cognitive limit of people whom one can keep a stable social relationship with.
Mirror Neurons- a neuron that fires when one subject does or witnesses another subject perform an action. Neuron firing when the subject is only witnesses the action creates a mirrored response to the subject doing the action, thus mirror neurons.
Synchronous Activity- do an activity simultaneously with multiple subjects. Includes moving at the same rate, existing at the same time, having identical periods and having identical phases.
Duchenne Smile- a "real smile" that not only involves the muscles of the lips lifting upwards, but also includes the muscles of the eyes contracting.
CHAPTER ANALYSIS
This chapter was very informative and conveniently tied in nicely with my current Psychology class. It also reminded me of a book called Tipping Point. I appreciate the importance of a relationship between a user and their experience. Most graphic designers are designing digitally and it's important to not lose the personable experience in doing so.
I love Dunbar's number and the experiments that came from it. In the book Tipping Point, there is a chapter about a business who uses the idea of this number as a business model. Everyone is on the same level (there are no bosses) and the business successfully thrives. After the business reaches over 150 people they break up the people into sections. I think it is important to understand how our social networking blankets us and makes people feel like they have more relationships than they do. It is also really important to understand which networking sites are for what.
The other part of this chapter that I found to be very interesting was the bit on how people lie differently. People tend to lie the most over the phone and the least when writing with pen and paper. This comes in handy to know when trying to get feedback. Feedback tends to be most accurate when shared one on one. People tend to be more negative towards others when using email versus pen and paper.
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