Advertising and Marketing, Cialdini - Weapons of Influence, Johnstone - Status Transactions, Social Psychology, Status and Prestige
I’m always excited when science finally catches up with marketing. A man walks into a sociologist’s office, and is asked to write a short essay highlighting his healthy life habits. He does so. Afterwards, he’s offered a choice of two small rewards...
Johnstone - Status Transactions, Leadership
“Toughness” is an adjective that gets thrown around a great deal, particularly in politics. Many public figures go out of their way to associate themselves with “tough,” “independent” stances and hard-line foreign policy, and each...
Johnstone - Status Transactions, Public Speaking
I hear a common complaint about internal company presentations. Internal presentations are apt to be less formal, and therefore audience members commonly to interrupt with questions, tangents, challenges and typing out emails on their Blackberries. Most times its the...
Advertising and Marketing, Acting and Performance, Johnstone - Status Transactions, Status and Prestige
We Are All Just Squabbling Ducks Previously, I have remarked on an area of interpersonal dynamics called the Status Transaction. This concept comes from one of the fathers of improv theatre. It says that humans, just like other pack animals, communicate in subtle...
Johnstone - Status Transactions
Historians have finally identified the inventor of “cool.” Back, way back before the Fonz, before James Dean or Brando, before Clark Gable, almost before Columbus even landed, there was the originator of cool: Baldassare Castiglione. How can you not be...
Advertising and Marketing, Johnstone - Status Transactions
I’ve wanted to write this article for a long time, but it took me finding a brilliant essay called “The Rise of the Caring Industry,” by Ronald W. Dworkin, to fill in the last piece of the puzzle. I’m a great fan of the show Mad Men, in part...
