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Study Confirms That Cars Have Personalities
Ponca City, We love you writes "A study has confirmed that many people see human facial features in the front ends of automobiles and ascribe various personality traits to cars. Forty study participants assessed cars based on a system known as geometric morphometrics by viewing high-resolution, 3D computer reconstructions and printed images of 38 actual 2004-06 car models and rating each model on 19 traits such as dominance, maturity, gender, and friendliness, and if they liked the car. Study participants liked best the cars scoring high in the so-called power traits — the most mature, masculine, arrogant, and angry-looking ones. Researchers theorized that over evolutionary time, humans have developed a selective sensitivity to features in the human face that convey information on sex, age, emotions, and intentions. The lead researcher explained, 'Seeing too many faces, even in mountains or toast, has little or no penalty, but missing or misinterpreting the face of a predator or attacker could be fatal.'"
The easiest way to change the PERCEPTION of value is to alter the "Face" on the front of the car. Expensive cars have a face that is smarter, sleeker, sexier, more masculine, etc. Take a look at a BMW, how the shape of the headlights and the grille combine to make the characteristic BMW face. Cheap cars have weak, stupid, submissive faces. Why don't they take a cheap car and put a sexy face on it? Because then nobody would buy the expensive cars.
Japanese cars seem to go for this. The most blatant example is the Miata.
And then there are badass cars like this. To misquote Firefly, 'A man drives down the street in that, people know he's not afraid of anything.'
Further studies show that people ascribing animalistic qualities to inanimate objects are idiots!
Even further studies show that square, pedantic nerds with no creative imagination are extremely boring people!
I hope to someday be able to purchase an internationally-marketed mass produced automobile that speaks to my own sense of individuality. I will perhaps get a GMC Acadia, but with a towhook package, or a Volkswagen Golf with a turbocharged engine instead of normally-aspirated and an iPod dock. I will then most likely get a tribal tattoo. I'm young, tech-savy,cyber-edgy and stickin' it to society's traditional values!
I did a study on cars and asked like 40 of my friends to rate a bunch of cars selected at random. The options for choices were "like a squirrel", "like a fox", "like a tiger", "like a bird", "like a bear" and "like a turtle." Without exception, everyone likened each car presented to some kind of animal. Therefore people think all cars look like animals.
Did anyone catch the flaw?
Now go back and look at the summary. All of the words given as choices in describing the cars are closely linked to personality traits. So of COURSE they will be perceived to have personalities if they are described in those terms!
Hello Kitty says you have to come with her if you want to live.