Business of Life

Women respond to bonding not greed

Michelle Miller at Wonderbranding has posted a fascinating entry on Emory University's study of real time MRI's during social interaction among women in Getting to Know You - Part 11.

The Emory researchers initially set out to show that a woman’s brain reacts the same way each time it strives for a goal, no matter what the plan is for achieving that goal. What they discovered was quite surprisingly the opposite. When a participant’s chosen strategy for increasing her money reflected a selfish or greedy premise, a small region of the brain showed activity. But when cooperative alliances were formed with other women toward the same goal, the brain not only lit up like a Christmas tree, it radiated in regions that scientists know to be directly related to reward behavior… the same areas that respond to chocolate cake, sex, beautiful pictures, and other assorted delights.

Even more interesting, it was the perception of bonding with other humans, not the money, these women responded to. When participants played the same game against a computer, the reward behavior regions were significantly less responsive.

This has enormous implications for the financial services industry who have yet to understand how to make their female customers a community of friends.

Posted by Jill Fallon at October 6, 2004 05:30 PM | Permalink