Does Time REALLY = Sex = Love = Money? Here’s the First Research
The formula holds true for some but not all and I’m going to show you just who is motivated and influenced by what. First we begin with a thought…
A lot of people say, “Time is money.”
The Beatles sang, “Money can’t buy me love.”
I have a strong Beatles bias. But depending on how you define the word love, you could argue they were wrong.
Obviously a watch is not the same as the passing of time. The passing of time is not the same as engaging in procreation (or even practicing). Obviously practicing the skill of procreation is not the same as dollar bills or Euros.
SPECIFICALLY: The question is, are these things INTERCHANGEABLE?
Can these things be traded for each other? Is that in fact the history of mankind?
I’ve studied this equation from the frames of a family man, a married man, a single man, as a guy who works hard. Fair?
Let’s start here:
Is the Formula Real and Does it Work for Everyone?
The most accurate answer I can give you is the elements can be interchangeable (and I’m not referencing a “one night experience,” here) for many humans.
And…now we know who is more likely to be influenced by which elements and why!
Look at some research that was done on groups of men.
Researchers wanted to tease out a bunch of stuff about motivation, influence and neural equivalents as they relate to Visual Subliminal Stimulation.
So here’s the necessary background:
In Visual Subliminal Stimulation, people respond when they are motivated or predisposed to “move in the direction” of whatever the subliminal cue is.
Subliminal means the conscious mind does not register seeing the cue (picture/image) being shown.
If the person is not motivated or predisposed to a goal, any response will be very short term and all the cues in the world for the most part…fall by the wayside.
Example. You are watching a video game on your computer. The word “drink” is subliminally flashed on the screen throughout the game. The game ends. There is water at the back of the room.
People who are thirsty will generally go back and guzzle down water…often a lot of it.
People who aren’t thirsty generally don’t go back and drink anything…or if they do, it’s very little.
That info alone to me and my work is cool, amazing, mind blowing.
The ramifications are dramatic. If people are predisposed to do X then being subliminally or BRIEFLY exposed to X or something like X causes them to even physically move in the direction of X to “go get it.”
That’s not a $10,000 KEY POINT, it’s a $100,000 GOLD MINE.
People are hungry? Flash a pizza. (Not a commercial but a quick flash, like…you know.)
It triggers the physical action to acquire pizza. If the person isn’t hungry? Nothing.
But this is not the newer research I want to share with you today. We knew this four years ago.
The new research…is way cooler.
Does sex = money?
Sex is one of those lovely words whose definition isn’t well defined or agreed upon. When I think of sex, I think of well…people experiencing…it’s not a one person deal…in my mind. And…hey…enough of what I think about….
As we’ve seen in previous research reported here five weeks ago, most American women, think of a sexy girl…as “sex.”
If you are a man, I already know what you are thinking.
Realize that the two genders are waaaaaaaaaay different at the level of “think” and “brain” and the like.
Sexy women = sex, has never made sense to me, but what makes sense to me is flat out not important.
Conversations with European women offer small sample sizes but the American woman sees a sexy woman and thinks “sex.” The European woman sees a sexy woman and thinks, “sexy woman,” unless she thinks she’s better looking than the sexy woman. (An entirely different article.)
It never dawned on me until about a decade ago when I was writing Irresistible Attraction that Sexy Women = Sex IS REAL, at least in the minds of American women.
Understanding what people think matters a lot. Knowing how they define specific words and thoughts, however, means just about everything.
Researchers wanted to find out if “sex” (to be defined in this article only as, “seeing a sexy woman”) really motivate as much as we think they do. Do they motivate people to buy? To decide more quickly?
The researchers wanted to find out the impact of sexy women on men, as far as decision making is concerned.
Smile = More Sales?
One recent study gave us a glimpse about what a woman’s face smiling did for a direct mail piece.
Put a very small photo of a wholesome smiling woman in the corner of your letter and, sure enough, response goes up… …way up.
In a test letter for mortgage rates, the smiling woman got the same response rate as a mortgage offering of 3 1/2%, which was FOUR points less than the control piece at 7 1/2%. Interesting?
Obviously, the smiling woman isn’t worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but she causes as monstrous a response as an almost free mortgage!
And that didn’t have anything to do with sex.
(In case you’re wondering, a photo of a man had no impact on the response rate of the pieces.)
But the photo of the woman was hardly sexy. It was only a head and shoulders shot and the woman was simply smiling.
Back to Seeing a Sexy Woman…Cues
New researchers already knew that men behaved impulsively in the presence of images of sexy women. They now wanted to find out if anything else came even close to sexy women in motivating men.
And they wanted to know more…a lot more…
If men were motivated by sexy women, would they also be motivated by cocaine, cigarettes, money, gambling, etc. etc.
AND
…if the men were motivated by seeing sexy women and they were rewarded, not with the sexy woman, (rewarding men with women in research studies would make for major challenges, as you can imagine…) – but, say, the men would be rewarded with money after being motivated by the sexy women or similar cues….would the urges and impulses generated by sexy women be slowed or stopped?
In other words, a subliminal image of a sexy woman flashes on the meeting’s power point screen for the sales staff. We know that triggers impulsivity and aggressive behavior. BUT when we add the reward of a spiff (bonus money) at the end of our sales meeting, will that cause more or less sales?
Now THAT’S interesting….something I never even considered.
See, the deal is that when the brain is set on a goal, it will go get it…IF it is REALLY SET.
Then when the brain GETS the GOAL it stops “going.”
Every man reading this should well comprehend this with no difficulty.
And it works like that for other “goals” as well.
So if a man is goal-triggered by a sexy woman, will he be equally as “satisfied” with money instead of the sexy woman?
You with me?
OK, here we go:
Here are some proven generalized facts in human behavior.
Numerous studies and experiments were done in and out of laboratory. Real world stuff.
Instead of walking through all the in’s and out’s of the studies, how about I simply show you the findings and give you examples/scenarios?
- The more something is desired, the more we want it NOW.I am offered the choice of a new 2018 automobile (taxes all paid) OR sitting right next to it is Greg Iles latest book. I desire both but I desire the automobile, MORE. Because I desire it MORE my brain goes to work on getting it NOW. ACTIONS will BEGIN before I even THINK about taking the actions.
- Delaying the receipt of something we desire becomes more frustrating the more we want it.I tell you, “now that you know you can have the 2018 automobile, I need to share with you that you can’t have it today. You will get it in ONE YEAR.” And your human brain goes crazy.
It now pushes it’s own buttons and puts you into hyper aggressive mode physically. Adrenaline pumps. Cortisol is released. You WANT YOUR CAR NOW.
- Delaying a reward reduces the value of the reward.Imagine today is February 1. You tell your sales staff, “if you do a good job this year you’ll get a BIG 5 digit bonus check in December.” You have wasted your time, money and effort.
- People will wait longer for a bigger reward they don’t visually see than a smaller reward given immediately.Ask people whether they would want a $1,000 bonus today that is on the desk in front of them or $5,000 in 9 months. People will take the $1000. The mentality is a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
- If the two rewards (today’s and tomorrow’s – which is bigger) are both visible there will be no acceptable waiting time. The smaller reward NOW is preferred. People have a VERY DIFFICULT TIME SEEING PAST TODAY.
- Delaying gratification when looking at the item is very difficult.Key Point: People want what is IN FRONT OF THEM. People will buy what is in front of them. The reason YOU have made hundreds of purchases is because the person came up to your front door or called you and they put a product or service IN FRONT OF YOU.
- Exposure to “hot stimuli” leads to a time perspective collapse toward the present.This one is easy. If you have something that causes people to salivate on some level, they don’t just not get past today, they don’t get past the next few hours. They want it NOW.
- Exposure to “hot stimuli” leads to a GENERAL IMPATIENCE toward many possible non-specific rewards.Once STRONG desire is triggered the person wants ALL KINDS OF OTHER THINGS TOO!
- Hungry people order more food than they can eat.The stomach is simply telling the brain that the body is in danger! EAT ALL YOU CAN!!
- Hungry people buy more food than originally intended.It’s a multi-course meal but they still order MORE in each course because they are HUNGRY NOW.
- In general, visceral factors, like hunger, drug craving, sexual desire, bring about near-sighted impulsive decisions.It’s that simple. If you want people to spend money trigger THEIR CRAVING. Remember what YOU crave is not necessarily what THEY CRAVE.
Now, here’s something fascinating…I almost didn’t believe it was true…
Stand-ins for Sex are Effective Stimulants
Beautiful faces or erotic stimuli (like touching a piece of lingerie) activate the brain’s neural reward circuity….the same center that lights up like a Christmas tree when desiring cocaine, money and food.
Interesting huh?
But, not for everyone.
In general, people can be divided into two behavioral approach system sensitivity categories.
a) those who are very sensitive to reward-seeking behavior (they want sex and/or drugs and/or cigarettes and/or money.)
b) there are those who are not sensitive to reward-seeking behavior.
Wealthy people are likely to wait longer for a much larger reward than those who are poor, who prefer a reward NOW.
Cool: After smoking cigarettes, smokers will delay other kinds of rewards longer than when they haven’t just smoked a cigarette.
One strong inoculation stems the need for the rest of the rewards.
Now, check this out…
Monetary deprivation leads to greater FOOD intake.
This is why you very often see that poor people in the U.S. are generally much heavier than their wealthy counterparts.
Finding: VERY INTERESTING: Monetary reward can appease HUNGER for FOOD!
And then many more persuasion findings:
Two simple concepts of avoiding pain and moving toward pleasure have expanded into broader more elegant categories and thus we know how to motivate and influence this person.
a) Behavioral Approach is basically about rewarding behaviors that are positive and proactive and the person feels good about the reward and behavior. Someone who feels good about smoking will seek it out and feel good about it creating a cycle of “positive reward.”
There are 3 simple categories of behavioral approach.
– people who know what they want and go get it. (drive)
– people who act in the spur of the moment, willing to try something new just because it might be fun (fun seeking)
– people when doing something they love tend to keep at it. When they get something they want they feel energized. When they see an opportunity that might be good for them they get excited. This person gets excited when they win a contest. (reward)
b) Behavioral Inhibition is basically avoiding a threat and having that cycle generalize into the future. (You fell down the stairs and now you don’t want to take the stairs any more. This guy has anxiety. People who are high in avoid punishment/get away are less likely to drink alcohol.)
– people who avoid don’t get too concerned when something bad is about to happen. people with high levels of BI are very hurt by criticism and tend to worry if they think someone is angry with them. they tend to feel bad if they do something they believe others will judge them on. They have fewer fears than their friends but worry about making mistakes.
- Those low in sensitivity of behavioral approach are NOT driven to meet goals fueled by sexual cues.This person doesn’t seek rewards or resists them intentionally and are thus less susceptible to sexual cues. “Sex” (I see a sexy woman for example) doesn’t generate motivation or drive in this person.
- Those high in sensitivity of behavioral approach ARE driven by sexual cues.This person can hold that piece of underwear or see the sexy woman and be motivated.
- Sexual cues lead to monetary craving.This is a cross over effect. One kind of approach can trigger feelings and motivations/drives in other approach areas.
- Delaying any reward reduces it’s value. (Delay discounting)This is true in general. Obviously wealthy people are more immune to DD than others because they recognize that a reward doesn’t have to come today for their motivation to be bumped up.
- KEY: After exposure to sexual cues, “sensitive men” in BA have a heightened preference for nearby and quick rewards.Touch the underwear, see the woman, they’ll go for a tacos or give themselves some other kind of reward.
- When exposed to lingerie (no women included) men discounted money more steeply than when they were exposed to women’s t-shirts.Sex cues for this sensitivity in BA are going to be willing to part with money for rewards (stuff) they want.
- Sexual cues lead to steeper discounting of money. (Take a lot less now than more tomorrow.)So the person with this trigger not only craves money but spends it much easier!
- FASCINATING: The discounting is not related to the attractiveness of the models as the exposure to the lingerie itself accomplishes the same result.
- INTERESTING side bar: After exposure to a “sexy commercial”, men were likely to be more creative!In retrospect this became predictable because many men are driven by sex cues and creativity is one outlet for those cues. Most great musical artists, artists in general, designers, singers, actors, creators of stuff in general are motivated here, though even in general, men are more creative after that commercial. It pays to keep the TV onto an old Baywatch episode with the sound down, if the guy can avoid getting wrapped up in the show.
- When some appetite (sex, drugs, money) is satiated, delayed gratification becomes easier for sensitive men.Solve ONE appetite and the feeling maps over to other appetites NOT needing to be fulfilled.
- Touching a bra (no model included) leads to steeper discounting of candy bars, money and soft drinks (among sensitive men) BUT NOT AFTER SATIATION. Give a man his favorite drink and the candy bar becomes less interesting. The opposite is also true of course.Read that again.
- FINDING: Sexual appetite CAUSES monetary CRAVING.
[Seeing the girl in the cocktail dress at the casino makes the desire to win money increase]…and oh… - AMONG WOMEN: Desire for FOOD causes monetary craving!
And who did all of this cool research which I just readers digested for you?
Bram Van Den Bergh, Siegfried Dewitte, Luk Warlop, Journal Consumer Research among others, over the last decade.
Better than cool and instantly useful in your business.
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