Artificial emotional intelligence is near
There’s a simple reason why you need to understand how emotions work, and it’s this: emotions drive people’s decisions, not rational thinking. So if you want to understand how to build more persuasive tech, you’d better invest some time to learn how emotions work.
Using Attachment Anxiety in Emotional Design & Marketing
How companies use social pain, to stop customers from leaving By Brian Cugelman, PhD with editorial production from Debra Weinryb When it comes to emotional design, people typically talk about positive emotions and user experiences, like how products can make people...
Workshop Scholarship Winners (Sep-Dec 2016)
We are excited to announce our latest round of winners of the AlterSpark’s scholarship program that provides complementary digital psychology training access to graduate students and members of social purpose organizations who use technology to build a better world....
Emotional Design Psychology & Human-Computer Relationships
Science shows that people interact with technology similar to how they interact with other people, but there’s never been a great explanation for why this is. There’s now good evidence that the neurochemical oxytocin impacts more than our relationships with other people, and that it may also unlock our understanding of how we form emotional relationships with brands and technology. In this opinion piece, Brian Cugelman, PhD discusses the intersection of emotional design, digital psychology and the biological-basis for why we interact with computers like other people.
Wondering about the science behind our micro infographics?
Lots of people have asked about the research behind our micro inforgraphics. Here are the citations behind our 2015 materials. Jiwa, M., S. Millett, et al. (2012). “Impact of the Presence of Medical Equipment in Images on Viewer’s Perceptions of the Trustworthiness of...
Seeking an Academic Partner for a Data Science and Psychology Project (in Toronto)
AlterSpark (alterspark.com) is seeking a Toronto-based academic partner to collaborate with an industry-academic project, that combines psychology, neuroscience and data science. Over the last few years, AlterSpark has carried out a range of studies aimed at better...
Announcing our 2016 Q1-2 Scholarship Winners
We are excited to announce our latest round of winners of the AlterSpark’s scholarship program that provides complementary digital psychology training access to graduate students and members of social purpose organizations who use technology to build a better world....
Psychological Backfiring: How Psychology Can Damage your Websites, Apps, and Digital Marketing
There’s no shortage of evidence that behavioral psychology can transform your run-of-the-mill digital product into a highly engaging website, app or digital campaign. However, there’s one elephant in the room that nobody likes to discuss. It’s the dirty little secret that scientists, web psychology gurus and digital media pros rarely acknowledge, let alone discuss. It’s the topic that emerges the minute you stop “selling” persuasive technology as a magic formula, and take an honest look at it. The elephant I’m talking about is the “backfire”, when we accidentally misapply psychology so severely that we accidentally trigger the opposite behavior of what we intended.
