Apple Causes Religious Reaction In Brains of Fans

satuon writes "In a recently screened BBC documentary called 'Secrets of the Superbrands', UK neuroscientists found that the brains of Apple fans are stimulated by images of Apple products in the same areas as those triggered by religious imagery in a person of faith. According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."

Comments

Apple Stores

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if I'm alone, but every time I walk past an Apple Store I'm terrified one of the staff is going to come out and offer me a free personality test.

Re:Apple Stores

[Posting=!Working]

If you walked in the store, you passed the test.

Re:Apple Stores

[Sir_Eptishous]

Should be modded insightful. Yes, the whole Apple culture/worldview/aura is very L. Ron Hubbardesque.

Re:Apple Stores

[The Dawn Of Time]

It's also amusing how much of a religion opposing Apple seems to be. I have to wonder if the grand irony is lost on you haters.

Re:Apple Stores

[poity]

Also notice how cathedral-like those Apple stores are -- glass to harness the ethereal, wooden altars to exalt the immaculate, and "genius" acolytes to guide you on the path to salvation (from PC original sin).

Re:Apple Stores

[tangelogee]

It's also amusing how much of a religion opposing Apple seems to be. I have to wonder if the grand irony is lost on you haters.

...kind of how Atheism is as much of a religion as religion itself?

Re:Apple Stores

[HunterD]

Damn, this is turning out to be exactly like dealing with christians as an atheist:

Them:
"Your lack of belief in a god is a religion"

Me:
"Defining a lack of a belief in something as a religion is broken"

When are people who are a part of the faithful herd (regardless of the faithful herd) going to accept that not being a member of your religion is not a leap of faith?
(Answer: never)

Re:Apple Stores

[Bemopolis]

Well, whenever I use Windows I am convinced of the absence of a just and loving God.

Re:Apple Stores

[uniquename72]

Atheism is a "religion" as much as religions are religions

The (obvious) problem with this is that there are about 100 atheists in the world who actually give a shit enough about atheism or religion to proselytize it, compared to millions of god-lovers who won't just leave the rest of us alone.

Re:Apple Stores

[i_ate_god]

Atheism isn't a religion, but it is a leap of faith nevertheless. You are basically saying, without any proof, that god doesn't exist at the same time as a preacher is saying, without any proof, that god does exist, and neither of you have really defined who or what God is.

So yeah, keep pretending you're different from theists...

Re:Apple Stores

[enderjsv]

Not really though. Saying something does exist is not the same as saying something doesn't exist. If I said there are no such thing as purple monkeys who drive cars, the lack of evidence suggesting their existence would satisfy most people, especially as the claim is significantly outrageous. However, if I said there WERE purple monkeys who drive cars, people would become far more skeptical.

Lack of evidence that something exists IS a type of evidence that it doesn't exist. It's not full proof, of course, but if it's the only evidence one can go by, it's better to regard it than disregard it and claim the opposite. If that wasn't true, then all kinds of claims could be made including my purple monkey statement and it'd be just as reasonable to say "well, you can't prove it DOESN'T exist, so you're a fool for denying my claim that it does".

Re:Apple Stores

[UnknowingFool]

What I see is that many geeks reduce Apple's efforts down to "simply" this or that. "Apple is all about marketing." In your analysis of the iPod, you've reduced the important contributions to "simply" the color and the wheel. I think many here on Slashdot still don't accept or understand is that Apple does not design their products for us; the target market is general consumers. Thus in your analysis you've ignored the features of the iPod that made it successful for general consumers.

With the iPod, focused more on usability than technical specs that geeks love. For example it was small and could hold a great deal of music. Before the iPod you had to choose between the two with competitors. Apple also shifted the mindset from a file-based system to a media based one. For geeks, they don't see a difference. For an average consumer who considers their desktop as their filesystem, removing the minutiae of having to deal with files increases usability.

None of these things were ground breaking from a geek's perspective. To an average consumer, it was magical. While geeks dismiss them as "inevitable" the question is why did virtually none of Apple's competitors do it first?

Re:Apple Stores

[MachDelta]

You're painting all atheists with the gnostic atheist brush. Most atheists are agnostic/soft/implicit atheists. That is, they don't claim to know weather or not a god exists, but they think it likely that none do.

Re:Apple Stores

[NFN_NLN]

Atheism isn't a religion, but it is a leap of faith nevertheless. You are basically saying, without any proof, that god doesn't exist at the same time as a preacher is saying, without any proof, that god does exist, and neither of you have really defined who or what God is.

So yeah, keep pretending you're different from theists...

Not even the same ballpark in leaps of "faith".

- One prediction has a long standing history of being proven wrong on all the small details so why would I believe the biggest lie of all.

- The other prediction is a logical extension of everything I've learned up until now regarding how the physical universe works.

Re:Apple Stores

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

We're not bashing Apple or their products. We're bashing the culture of Apple-Fandom. Yes, other OS's have their fanboys, too. However, my impression of Microsoft product users is most use it simply because they have to. I know of very few MS Windows users who cream their jeans and sing high praise of Microsoft. Apple has shortcomings too, mainly that Apple products are expensive and customers are forced to use Apple hardware. I'm mainly a Linux user...and yes, Linux has its fanboys too and each distro has its own cult following.

Re:Apple Stores

[ZaphDingbat]

Oh? Who is the head of atheism? What dietary restrictions do we have? Special days of the week? Buildings we meet in? Perhaps you can name any facts we're conveniently ignoring because we simply want to believe what we believe?

Re:Apple Stores

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

Atheism is as much a religion as not-stamp-collecting is a hobby. Atheism is a lack of belief and for many atheists, its more an acknowledgement of science. When Atheists refer to "God", they are usually talking about the supernatural God of Abraham shared by both the New Testament, Old Testament and K'uran but it refers to any supernatural God of any religion.

And this is news how?

[jarich]

Old news for anyone who's spent time around Apple users. Just saying. ;)

I'm an atheist but...

[bytethese]

Steve Jobs, who art at Apple, awesome be thy name...

Re:I'm an atheist but...

[YttriumOxide]

As an atheist myself (and a relatively "strong" one at that - I consider the concept of religion to be toxic), I wouldn't be surprised to see the same reaction in rabid Linux users, or rabid Windows users (although admittedly they're a lot harder to find). The article and summary are heavily focused on Apple, but the core content of the article (and yes, summary) states that it's more about it being a brand that people do build up a "religious" feeling towards.

As an Apple user (typing this on a MacBook Pro) AND as a Linux user, AND as a Windows user for work, I really am quite certain I wouldn't have these kinds of reactions in my brain to seeing Apple logos. i.e. I am not an "Apple devotee" as the article puts it. I do however suspect you'd see these reactions in my brain for the things I am truly passionate about (sometimes irrationally) such as showing me a Dvorak layout keyboard; a linguistic tree; or the flag of my home country. Note that I don't consider myself "excessively" devoted to any of these things, but I can imagine it would trigger something (these things all do trigger an emotional response for example).

Re:I'm an atheist but...

[jollyreaper]

As an atheist myself (and a relatively "strong" one at that - I consider the concept of religion to be toxic), I wouldn't be surprised to see the same reaction in rabid Linux users, or rabid Windows users (although admittedly they're a lot harder to find).

As an internet troll myself (and a relatively "strong" one at that) I wouldn't be surprised to see the same reaction in atheists when they see a picture of Dawkins, a smug and self-satisfied French existential movie or a first edition of Origin of the Species.

*ducks, runs*

I'd like them to compare programmers' brains

[KDN]

I think it would be interesting to compare brain scans of different factions of computer programmers. Any number of programmer religious wars: vi vs emacs, Unix vs Windows, GUI vs CLI, indenting with blanks vs tabs, C vs Perl vs Ruby vs .Net vs Python vs JavaScript.

Re:I'd like them to compare programmers' brains

[19thNervousBreakdown]

It's weird that anybody gives a shit about vi vs emacs--it's obvious that unless you use an exclusive feature, they're essentially the same, modal vs modeless is nothing more than a preference, and given their complexity, the most important thing about either is how familiar you are with it. I guess people just like to believe that what they're already doing is the best thing. And hey, who wouldn't like for that to be true? Maybe the difference is skipping the step where you find out if what you want to believe is true.

Tabs vs spaces, on the other hand, well, there's no question. Heretics who indent with spaces should be burned at the stake.

Only big brands?

[tchernobog]

Hah, they should try that test with us GNU/Linux users on Slashdot.

We probably qualify directly as saints.

Emacs users

[Torodung]

So if it works for Macs, we need a similar study done on Emacs users. ;^P

(We apologize in advance for any resulting emacs vs. vi flame war.)

Bullshit.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The idea that "Apple causes religious reaction in brains of fans" is absolute nonsense. Those pointy-headed intellectuals have it all wrong(probably because they are trying to do visualizations on an emachine or something).

The truth is, a number of dusty little abrahamic "deities" have hijacked the portions of the brain that evolved to appreciate Apple products in a fair number of unfortunate individuals. Hence the confusion.

It's a cult.

[MaWeiTao]

I think it's simply human nature. An individual who doesn't have religion inevitably creates something to fill that space. So you get celebrity and idol worship and the adulation of lifestyle brands.

Having worked in design for well over a decade I've come across countless Apple fanatics. Although fervor has dampened a bit in recent years, the switch to Intel processors and Apple having becomes largely mainstream playing significant parts in that. Not to discount what Apple has been able to do, but routinely Apple gets all the credit for things others have been doing for years.

The way I've seen some people idolize Steve Jobs is downright embarrassing. I've seen people use his portrait as a desktop background. Every time a new product comes along the rumors start flying about how it works and how it's built. I've heard some outrageous claims over the years.

The thing that I never expected was that this level of fanaticism would infect the mainstream. The big irony is that for many people, particular college kids from what I've seen, continue to see Apple as representative of some kind of counter-culture. I wonder how these people would feel if they say who's on Apple's board of directors. It doesn't get more mainstream than Apple. I'm sure they'd find a way to rationalize it all.

I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.

Good news!

[The Creator]

Apple can file to become tax exempt!

Re:..brain regions which evolved to process religi

[TheRaven64]

There have been evolutionary pressures towards religion for a long time. Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them. For example, a religion can say 'don't eat pork' and the followers will avoid pork without questioning. Since pigs and humans are biologically similar, it's very easy for diseases to jump the species barrier, so a population that avoids eating pig is more likely to survive than one that eats pig (especially with the uneven cooking you get from primitive fire-based cooking). Another religion says 'don't eat green plants', but we don't hear about that one because all of its followers died. Similarly, the religion talks about the divine right of kings, and so the society becomes more cohesive and people are willing to die to protect it - this society is capable of exterminating societies based on self interest, so there is a survival benefit for genes that encourage people to join such a society.

Religions stimulate “Apple-like” react

[David Gerard]

Neuroscientists have found that religious fervour lights up the same parts of the brain as waiting in line for your devotions at the Apple Store.

The scientists were interviewed by a BBC programme exploring the fantastically lucrative and popular brands springing up around the supernatural. Religions such as "Christianity" parody the story of the semi-mythical Steve Jobs' virgin birth, adoption by a humble Silicon Valley family, founding of Apple, expulsion from the fold, decade in the wilderness and triumphant Second Coming, wherein devotees were led to enlightenment, glory and hipness.

"The scans of 'religion' appear remarkably similar," said one scientist whose name is being withheld for protection from outraged Apple devotees. "The adrenal glands are stimulated and the same areas of the visual regions light up. Somewhat in the shape of an apple. No, really! Shaped like an apple!"

Cupertino's response was frosty. "To have the sacred enlightenment of the products of our saviour Steve maligned by comparison to mere witchdoctor cultist mumbo-jumbo is no less than a calculated insult. One important difference is that our stuff works. ... If you hold it right." The spokesman then compared the neuroscientists' mothers to a PC.

"The comparison is ridiculous," said "religious" leader Joe "Happy Heil" Ratzinger. "We're just out to make an honest buck like anyone. Well, fairly honest."

Photo: His Stevianity ministering to a devoted soul..

Re:Be praised Stevee.

[InsertCleverUsername]

Amen

Let me fix that for you...

All praise to our blessed Jobs.

iMen! (c)

Re:Political discussions do the same thing

[Deviate_X]

Like Politics and religion, computing has degenerated into one of those dangerous topics that can damage carreers and friendships. You just dont want to bring it up in real life conversation.

Re:Hallelujah!

[emag]

Well, for a start, I don't keep hot grits anywhere near my graphics rig...

Re:Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious fo

[KugelKurt]

Apple fanboys are as irrational as religious folks. Who woulda thunk?

No, they are not. At least they believe in something that actually exists unlike the billions of nutjobs who believe in an imaginary deity.

Re:..brain regions which evolved to process religi

[Nerdfest]

Religion lets you accept things without needing to understand them.

It Just Works?