Kevin Hogan

International Speaker

Latest Articles:  Stopping the Black Swan Can You Become a New Person?

I think most Coffee with Kevin Hogan Readers have figured out that if something can be used to sell a house, a car or a financial plan, it can be used to persuade your children, spouse and the gardener.

This article is a really neat update on where we are at with “Mirror Neurons”.  I need you to read this article because we’re going to be talking a lot about Mirror Neurons in the next few weeks and how understanding these cells takes persuasion and influence to not just the next level but maybe to the top.

Before you begin, do know there is not complete agreement about mirror neurons in the scientific community. Do they even exist?! I’ll share with you the latest on that debate next month. For the moment read carefully.

What I want you to take home from this article will be:

First: The people you interact with everyday are essentially, “in your brain.” You might find yourself emulating people you hate. You might find yourself saying phrases and words that you heard the most dreaded people talk about today.

Second: When someone you love is away, they are with you in your brain. Problem is, that when you want to love them, they aren’t there in reality, creating a problem squared. I’ll explain more about this next week.

Third: Monkey See Monkey Do….The Meme….It’s real and more than real. It’s scary real. It’s amazing real.

Get these basic ideas and then next week we’ll talk about how to apply all of this to your business, your website, your communication and give you an enormous edge over the competition.

They’ll never catch up….

Adapted from the Association of Psychological Science

In the mid-1990s, scientists at the University of Parma, in Italy, made a discovery so novel that it shifted the way psychologists discuss the brain. After researchers implanted electrodes into the heads of monkeys, they noticed a burst of activity in the premotor cortex when the animals clutched a piece of food. In a wonderfully fictitious account of the discovery, neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti was licking ice cream in the lab when this same region again fired in the monkeys. In an equally wonderful truthful account, the neurons in this region did, in fact, fire when the monkeys merely watched researchers handle food.

Mirror neurons — the tiny neurological structures that fire both when we perceive action and take it, exposing the true social nature of the brain — had been identified. Since that time, the term has become a powerful buzz phrase: technical enough to impress at dinner parties; simple enough to explain to Grandma; sweeter sounding than, say, the Bose-Einstein condensate.

Recently, I wrote an article for this magazine about the power of movies on behavior; to my surprise, many researchers discussed, without prompting, the role mirror neurons play in explaining why viewers connect so strongly with on-screen emotions. A short while later I read an article in Time magazine that said mirror neurons might form the basis for empathy, social behavior, and even language. One psychologist placed these neurons on the same plane as DNA in the realm of scientific discovery.

Mirror neurons, it seems, are of the utmost importance in human mind, and on the tip of the collective psychological tongue. “It’s going to make a big change,” says neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni, University of California, Los Angeles, of the discovery’s impact on psychology. “Psychological studies started with the idea that a solitary mind looks at the world in a detached way. Mirror neurons tell us we’re literally in the minds of other people.”

Huh? What does that mean…

Multitasking Mental Cells

The striking implication of mirror neurons is that the same brain region that controls action also supports perception, writes Günther Knoblich, Rutgers University, in Current Directions in Psychological Science. If observing behavior occurs in the same area as actually behaving, then social interaction would seem to play a large role in cognition. It explains, for example, why spectators at a boxing match sometimes jab at the air and why seeing a violent blow to the head makes them recoil physically. The poet John Donne was on the right track: We are not islands, unto ourselves.

This social link between perception and action can be traced back to William James, says Knoblich. James explained that performing a movement required first having a mental picture of that movement. In the 1970s and 1980s, psychologists like APS Fellow Anthony Greenwald and Wolfgang Prinz extended this ideomotor principle, demonstrating that seeing and doing branch off the same tree.

But it was the work done with monkeys in Rizzolatti’s lab that gave a name to the multitasking mental cells that make this possible. Mirror neurons fire when monkeys break peanuts in their hands, when they see others break peanuts — even when, in total darkness, they merely hear peanuts being broken. “That’s why it’s called a mirror neuron,” says Iacoboni. “It’s almost like the monkey is watching his own action reflected by the mirror.”

Mirror neurons haven’t been pinpointed in people with the same precision that electrodes can pinpoint them in monkeys. (As a result, many researchers refer to a general “mirror system.”) Still, several recent functional imaging studies support a social side to human cognition, with which people internally replay the actions they view in another before acting themselves.

In one study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team that included Iacoboni found that imitating and observing facial expressions activated the same regions of the brain. A study in Science a year later showed activity in similar neural regions whether a subject actually experienced a painful stimulus or simply observed a loved one receiving the same shock. To many researchers, these and similar findings suggest that mirror neurons play a large role in empathy.

The multitalented mirror system might even understand another person’s intentions, suggests research published in PLoS Biology. To test whether the mirror system simply recognizes action or also grasps the meaning of an action, Iacoboni and his colleagues showed different types of videos to 23 subjects. “Context” clips, free of action, showed a teapot, a mug, and some cookies before and after tea time. “Intention” clips showed the same before and after scene, but included a hand getting ready to either drink the cup (before tea time) or clean up the cup (after).

While mirror regions showed similar activity during context videos, they showed significantly more activity during the “drinking” intention clips than during the “cleaning” intention clips. Mirror neurons, the test suggests, might do more than acknowledge action; they might codify it.

“Our social dimension would be completely destroyed” without mirror neurons, Iacoboni says. “The only way I could understand you would be by complicated mechanisms. It would be a very different world.”

What do babies teach us about mirror neurons?

Baby See, Baby Do

People don’t waste much time becoming part of this social world. Babies can imitate behavior two to three weeks after they’re born, says developmental psychologist and APS Fellow and Charter Member Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington. In a 1977 issue of Science, decades before the term “mirror neurons” existed, Meltzoff published evidence that infants this young can imitate a mouth opening, a finger moving or a tongue peeking through lips. The discovery of mirror neurons was a neurophysiological explanation for the developmental behaviors Meltzoff had been noticing for decades.

“Human beings are not born exclusively with a set of reflexes or fixed action patterns,” says Meltzoff. “A key mechanism is learning from social others by observing.”

Meltzoff’s findings flew in the face of Jean Piaget’s solipsistic theories that people begin life in asocial isolation, slowly gaining an understanding of the relationship between the self and other. “Babies don’t become social,” Meltzoff says, “they’re social at birth.”

This early work set the stage for what he now calls the “Like Me” theory of child development. In the first months and years of life, babies realize that other people are like them. “From the moment we’re born, we’re organizing movement as ‘like me,’” or not like me, he says. “A tree blows, but it’s not moving like me. A ball flies, but it’s not moving like me. But a mother opens her hands, and suddenly the baby’s riveted. They can begin to learn.”

Over time, babies learn that they can act with intent and variety. They experience the ability to perform an action differently from the person they are imitating. Eventually they realize internal states, such as desire; further down the line they develop empathy.

The child-rearing implications for this work are powerful: Imitative social games, such as patty-cake, can help create the mental maps of others that lead to empathic feelings. “Empathy doesn’t emerge miraculously, as a virgin birth,” Meltzoff says. “It grows out of things that are simpler beginnings.”

Recently, however, Meltzoff and his colleague Betty Repacholi have found that infants aren’t simply sponges that absorb imitation only to spill it back out as processed. Infants as young as 18 months old can regulate their imitation, the researchers report in the March/April  Child Development.

To test such regulation, the researchers played with an object in front of infant subjects. After a while, another person entered the room. Sometimes this person expressed anger toward the experimenter performing the task; other times, the person remained neutral.

After this person left the room, the infants were given the chance to play with the object. At this point, the person who had been either angry or neutral returned to the room. Infants who had seen the neutral person were more likely to play with the object than those who had witnessed the angry outbreak, the researchers report.

What’s more, infants who had seen an angry response were more likely to play with the object if the angry person either didn’t return to the room or faced away from the infant. The research, says Meltzoff, shows for the first time that 18-month-olds can modify their imitation on the basis of their surroundings.

“That’s what makes humans different from monkeys,” he says. “Mirror neurons show how what you see can be connected with what you do, but human beings can also regulate their behavior.”

How Do Humans Regulate Emotions They Perceive in Others?

My Brain’s a Blender

Psychologists are finding that the mature adult mirror system does indeed seem to regulate itself, particularly when it comes to empathy. Such checks and balances occur for our own good. If, through the mirror system, we were able to completely experience the pain of another person, we might constantly feel distressed.

Clarifying this phenomenon might require a temporary substitute for the term “mirror system.” A regulated mirror system acts not as a complete mirror, merely flipping around another’s emotions, nor as a sponge, expelling only what it soaks up. Perhaps the mind is more like a kitchen blender: We understand the raw feelings of a friend in pain, but instead of devouring them whole we mix, chop, and purée them into a more digestible serving. Our blender brains enable us to simultaneously provide support and avoid emotional paralysis.

“The best response to another’s distress may not be distress, but efforts to soothe that distress,” says Jean Decety, University of Chicago, who discusses the subject in the  Current Directions in Psychological Science. “Empathy has a sharing component, but also self-other distinctions and the capacity to regulate one’s own emotions and feelings.”

In one study, writes Decety, researchers showed subjects a video of patients feeling pain as a result of medical treatment. Some subjects imagined themselves in the patient’s position, whereas others merely considered the patient’s feelings. Patients who put themselves in the painful shoes showed stronger neural responses in regions of the brain involved in experiencing real pain.

“If we were to consciously feel what [others] feel all the time, we would be in permanent emotional turmoil, leaving no room for our own emotions,” report Frédérique de Vignemont and Tania Singer in a recent Trends in Cognitive Science. When subjects playing a game witness a fair opponent in pain, neural regions controlling empathy are activated, the researchers found. But that’s not always the case when subjects, particularly males, see a deceptive opponent in pain. The way that relationships qualify empathy might explain why some people appear to lack compassion. Experiencing empathy for someone considered an enemy, after all, may not be a beneficial behavioral characteristic.

More primitive motivations, such as hunger, might also govern the mirror system. In a study that appeared in Cerebral Cortex, Decety, Meltzoff, and Yawei Cheng showed two groups of subjects a video of a person grasping food. Some of the subjects had fasted for at least 12 hours before the viewing; others had a meal before the session. Using functional imaging, the researchers found greater activity in the mirror systems of the hungry subjects. When a blender brain is running on empty it reacts strongly to the site of fresh fruit; when it’s filled to the brim with a smoothie, it’s less interested.

“There is a functional link between motivation and the motor system that will be used to achieve a goal,” Decety says. “When you want something badly, our perception-action system is readily tuned to perceive and act upon the aspects in the environment that will satisfy our internal state.”

What remains unclear about mirror system regulation is the order in which it occurs. Empathic response might occur automatically, only to be modified later; it might also be the outcome of a split-second neurological appraisal.

What Happens When the System Falters?

Cracks in the Mirror System

The evolutionary benefits of an efficient and well-regulated perception-action system that swings into action shortly after birth are numerous. A glimpse into another person’s emotions might help predict that person’s behavior. Understanding the face of pain from an early age could keep us from touching a hot stove. At a greater social level, a personal insight into the experiences of others could aid cooperation.

But as the functions of a healthy mirror system become clearer, some researchers have turned attention to what happens when the system falters. Many have discovered a connection between dysfunctional mirror regions and social disorders — namely, autism.

“At this point, it seems that autism is the field in which [the mirror system] will have the most immediate impact,” says Iacoboni.

To investigate this connection, Iacoboni and his colleagues studied the neurological activity of 20 child subjects, half of whom had autism. The subjects saw 80 pictures of faces expressing anger, fear, happiness, sadness, or nothing in particular. The researchers asked some subjects to merely view the faces and others to imitate them.

In the group of autistic children asked to imitate the faces, the researchers found no activity in brain regions associated with mirror neurons they report in a Nature Neuroscience — the first report to demonstrate a difference in mirror activity between a control group and autistic children. The more severe the condition, says Iacoboni, the less active the mirror-neuron system seems to be.

Others believe it’s too early to know the role mirror regions play in social impairments. So many theories have connected autism and brain dysfunction that the only responsible way to approach any new one, however promising, is with caution, says Decety.

“People tend to overgeneralize when there’s some exciting finding,” says Knoblich. Mirror neurons play a clear and important role in social cognition, he says, but the scope of that role — and how it is influenced by other processes, such as language — remains to be seen. “There’s a lot of hype around the mirror system, but I don’t think it’s arrived yet in psychology enough.”

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Association for Psychological Science. Eric Jaffe is an Observer contributor and Associate Web Editor of Smithsonian magazine.


Techniques, strategies, and tactics to reduce resistance to persuasion? They are all here…

You are in for a treat, because have I got an influence “truckload” for you! Science of Influence: Reducing Resistance with Persuasion focuses on the newest information available about reactance and resistance in persuasion. You’ll find cutting-edge research that you haven’t seen yet which shows that there are four specific manifestations of resistance (unconscious instantaneous resistance).

  • Reactance
  • Scrutiny
  • Distrust
  • Inertia

You are going to learn how to utilize the other person’s resistance so that it works to the favor of the persuasion process. No one has ever talked about this before.

Obviously, that information alone would be enough to justify any “price.” But you know me…

Want more?

Did you know that putting reactance into a story reduces or eliminates the resistance? I’ll show you what the research says and how to do it. Raising unconscious resistance (reactance) can help eliminate (in part or whole). I’m going to show you how.

Discussing bogus information from sources that lack in credibility can raise your ability to influence or send resistance through the roof. I’ll show you how to avoid the train wreck and make it all work.

Want more?

Your wishes have come true. A number of devoted students and masters of influence asked me to give you my proven applications of the selling and persuasion techniques that you have learned about in the Science of Influence Library. These full length CD’s accomplish an outcome no one has ever been able to achieve. You will learn the absolute most cutting edge material in sales techniques, belief change and influence then learn how to apply them. Bonus? You’ll learn applications of the most powerful material from the prior 30 CD’s in the Library.

What can you learn that no one has shared with you before?

  • An integrated template that allows you to model a successful sales presentation utilizing techniques learned in the Science of Influence.
  • The absolute single most important factor in influence. Learn how to make it part of your personality…because it probably isn’t…yet!
  • Your counterpart needs to be in a very specific frame of mind the moment you ask the big question. I’m going to reveal specifically how I do it, then give you the research showing other proven modalities.
  • Six specific ways to keep resistance at bay. Once you’ve overcome it, you need to stop the tide from rolling in again…and it will if you don’t handle it with these six techniques.
  • The single most important determining factor in reading their mind.
  • I take you through numerous step by step processes for applying everything I have uncovered in the field of persuasion and influence and make it manageable for you.
  • The 5 most common mistakes even experts make in influence and persuasion. I promise you do all of these things. I did. When you eliminate them…well you tell me…
  • The reason that the prescription you prescribe that will at first seem perfect for your client will cause them to bolt. Stop it now.
  • Learn how to overcome desperation on your part or the client’s part. Desperation is the single biggest killer in one on one influence.
  • Secret: Persuasion is most effective when it is interactive. Here is how to accomplish that!
  • Dealing with buyer’s remorse in advance…and when it happens. How to turn buyers remorse into long term permanent loyalty.
  • Why telling your counterpart the most sensible, easiest, fastest way to accomplish their goal will kill your sale. How to beat the problem before it brings out the ax…

Of course there is more.

You don’t need to have listened to the prior CDs to gain full benefit from this program. If you have mastered the prior library of CDs, I absolutely guarantee you that this program will make you wonder how you could have possibly had more to learn, to utilize, to create change, to solidify your expertise and become the ultimate master of persuasion.

Learn More about the Science of Influence: Reducing Resistance with Persuasion or Order

Coffee with
Kevin Hogan

persuasion newsletter

Coffee with Kevin Hogan, delivered Monday.

Dr. Hogan’s blog & newsletter are both 

…free forever.

You get the very latest and most important findings in human behavior, relationships, wealth building, outcome acquisition, nonverbal communication, mind control, covert hypnosis, selling, and marketing.

You’ll also get his book Mind Access, as his gift to you.

“Subscribe Now” and confirm it today by email the minute after you subscribe!

Latest Posts on Kevin's blog

Kevin Hogan Live in Wrocław​

Media Presence

World Class Business Kevin Hogan

World Business Class

Success in Influence, World Business Class Magazine, January 2018. Cover Story and Interview with Kevin Hogan

Costco

Costco interviewed Kevin for Body Talk: Actions Do Speak Louder than Words

Cosmopolitan

Kevin's body language evaluation!

Sales Guru

Article by Kevin in Sales Guru magazine (based in South Africa). "Burnout: Escaping Living Hell"

What People Say

“Want to influence others? Want to persuade others? Want to sell others? Then Science of Influence is not just an option – it’s a landmark breakthrough of information you can use the minute you read it.”
"As a psychotherapist, I work in the minefield of decision-making and I can tell you that making good decisions is critical to happiness, success, and relationships. Kevin Hogan’s course covers the terrain of decision-making with his usual thoroughness, candor, and relevance. Kevin is always ahead of the game because of his extensive research, vast and varied connections and sharp mind. His thinking about ‘high noon’ and light a fuse, if applied, would save many relationships and learning the concept alone is more than worth the price of admission."

Author of The Psychology of Persuasion, Irresistible Attraction, and The Science of Influence, Dr. Kevin Hogan is trusted by organizations, both large and small, to help them help their people reach their personal peak performance and maximize influence in selling and marketing. Kevin is an internationally admired keynote speaker and corporate thought leader. In Coffee with Kevin Hogan, he shares his research, observations, and how you can apply them in your life – both in business and at home.

Subscribe to Coffee with Kevin Hogan today!

You can always write us at
drkevinhogan@gmail.com or kevin@kevinhogan.com

Pay attention to your spam/junk/trash folders, shoot maybe the neighbors!

 Coffee Bonuses

And as a bonus for joining, Kevin will give you two hefty eBooks: Mind Access and Overcoming Rejection.

Overcoming Rejection: Defeating the Painful Feelings of Being Marginalized by Dr. Kevin Hogan

The tips you receive in Coffee with Kevin Hogan will help you in your relationships and in your business. The fun stuff, well is just fun. Subscribe now and see for yourself.

Subscribe to the weekly e-zine, Coffee with Kevin Hogan and you will be first to find out the latest in persuasion, influence, body language, personal development, sales and marketing.

We respect your email privacy

It’s worth being patient for this page to load completely. Apparently the subscription form is ABOVE this text!

Network 3000 Publishing (952) 465-7525 | 952 443 5049