Apple causes 'religious' reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists Comments

garyrob

Sat, 21 May 2011 13:37:01 +0000

This article's critic's have a real point. The popular press usually takes any scientific result and overgeneralizes it to the point of ridiculousness. (See this great XKCD for one example of how that works: http://xkcd.com/882/) And yet there is something interesting in this research. It didn't HAVE to be the case that even one person's brain lit up in response to Apple imagery in the SAME way some peoples' brains light up in response to religious imagery. Yes, they've taken someone who is at a far extreme of the human experience, so any generalization to "apple fans" as class of people is highly suspect at best. But if passionate religious experience had nothing whatsoever to do with non-religious fandom, then it could well be difficult or impossible to find even one technology fan whose brain lit up that way. So, this research provides some support to the hypothesis that there may be something about passionate religious belief that is not so fundamentally different from experience that has absolutely nothing to do with God. If you're an atheist, that is probably not unexpected news to you. But if you're highly religious, and believe that the way you feel when you're praying can ONLY be explained by the actual existence of a God who has a direct relationship with you, even one case such as this could rightfully challenge that assumption. But, in any case, the scientific process usually starts with some observation that hints at a certain direction. More often than not, further research in that direction fails to lead to a successful result. But sometimes it does. You have to start somewhere, and just one interesting data, point such as this one, can be the jumping off point. Perhaps there IS a phenomenon where a somewhat higher percentage of Apple owners than PC owners have those parts of the brains light up. (In fact, I'd guess that that is not so unlikely.) Obviously, this article is wrong to sensationalize one data point. An article like this can lead people who don't examine it closely to think the larger case has been proven. But that doesn't mean that that one case wasn't worth studying in the first place.

revjack

Sat, 21 May 2011 11:11:29 +0000

This is junk science.

Alex Zorach

Sat, 21 May 2011 02:44:15 +0000

I used to be relatively loyal to apple. They lost me when they made the switch to OS X; I was starting to dabble in Linux at the time. Close to the same time too, an Apple-branded monitor died just after the 3 year warranty, my first negative experience with apple hardware, which was usually very solid and reliable. What got me though was that I loved the transparency and consistent support of old software that Apple had stuck with. Apple had good support on their website for systems going back to System 1. OS X represented a break in UI too, the behavior was unintuitive all of a sudden, whereas it had been more or less similar with all the other changes up until that point. And I loved ResEdit. OS X did away with ResEdit and at the same time, Apple took down all their support. I felt abandoned, betrayed, I had been so loyal to them for years. Now they were all about being "cool" and "hip" and they didn't give a damn about sticking to their old philosophy of consistency of interface, and supporting old software. They permanently lost me. And I've been a die-hard Linux fan ever since, I briefly dabbled in Windows although I used Linux as my primary OS for a while, gave up my last *doze machine in 2005, and I have run exclusively linux since. Never looked back.

ironked

Fri, 20 May 2011 22:15:35 +0000

To me it's a genuine admiration for something that is well thought out and well executed. While I have a PC now, I started out on a Mac in the 80s. There was just something elegant about it. A couple of years ago I finally bought an iPod Nano. I ordered it, having never handling one. Apple just knows how to push the buttons. It's a sterling little thing. Came in an acrylic jewelbox. The slick ergonomics are just so beautiful. It's not hard to desire other Apple products with the same satisfying, tactile, functional, and aesthetic value of engineering.

Aaron

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:08:24 +0000

“This suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploit, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion."

That statement is so wrong. The brain didn't "evolve to process religion". Religion was never something we dealt with in a natural environment, it is simply one of the things the brain can do. Like videogames, the brain can play them, but they're artificially made so that we would want to interact with them. In fact, you could say the same thing about religion; it simply harnessed, or exploited those areas of the brain as well, it just did it much earlier.

FordPrefect1969

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:20:05 +0000

Somebody please do this with stupid people and pictures of Obama.

Abdul

Fri, 20 May 2011 13:59:12 +0000

But what does it mean when Apple's flagship New York store is shaped like the Kaba in Mecca?

oliolioli

Fri, 20 May 2011 09:01:05 +0000

It's an interesting area to explore, but Apple's success I think is more easily explained by their very close attention to creating the best user experience possible. From the iPod clickwheel to the iPhone touch screen, and to a lesser extent OS X, they've either done existing tech better (iPod) or created entirely new categories (iPhone). Whether that 'delight' created by a good user experience is the same as a religious experience is probably a bit doubtful. Religious fervour is more to do with blind acceptance of the words of others not the pleasure gained by achieving tangible goals.

Dr Matt Schofield

Fri, 20 May 2011 08:05:20 +0000

An interview with a Bishop and a scan of one brain isn't really massive evidence. It is worth noting that Apple is primarily a US brand (over half of Apple devices are there, only about a quarter are in Western Europe http://www.9to5mac.com/7751/Apples-iPhone-powered.... Only 4% of US folks think they are atheist.

Ron

Fri, 20 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

As any researcher or statistician knows full well, a sample of one is completely and utterly meaningless. Go find 1,000 more people to examine and the result will be statistically viable. Until then, stop wasting people's time with pointless crap like this.

poopnog

Fri, 20 May 2011 03:40:34 +0000

You are a trend setter kioshi. Alex Brooks should be worshipping you.

thewebsitecreator

Fri, 20 May 2011 01:16:18 +0000

This almost sounds like an April Fool's article. Too good to be true.

The CW

Thu, 19 May 2011 22:28:38 +0000

I'm certain the expected scientific rigor has been applied to this claim.

schwachs

Thu, 19 May 2011 17:14:54 +0000

This makes me feel a lot better about going to the Apple store every Sunday.

Sam

Thu, 19 May 2011 17:04:00 +0000

I think there's a lot of truth to the football thing. That's why it's such a problem. I grew up with kids who were literally abused because of their sports performance.

Lili

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:21:47 +0000

So they scanned ONE man's brain, who is *clearly* not normal and is beyond obsessive, and then claim this indicates that all Apple fans are reacting the same way? That's utterly ridiculous and in no way scientific, regardless of the equipment used in the process.

billrodman

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:16:22 +0000

I wonder who is more put off by this info: God or Steve Jobs?

korbal

Thu, 19 May 2011 16:01:41 +0000

Step 1) Start with a hypothesis that average Mac fans are overly committed to Mac. Step 2) Select someone with a MORE than average dedication to the Mac Brand. Examine this person's brain to find that the abnormal behavior is backed up by abnormal reactions in the brain. Step 3) Announce non-finding that average people react to Apple the way the Ultimate Fanboy subject does. Is there any science here?

hermannbjorgvin

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:00:48 +0000

it's nice to know window's 7 has the ability to turn people away from mac's and lead them to the path of rightusness. wiht that said i would like to finish with a quote from the all holy book of window's 7 "Apple is the devil and steve job's is his sidekick"

kioshi

Thu, 19 May 2011 03:33:25 +0000

I knew it! I'm glad I use Apple products for more than 10 years (so that I'm past the fanboy stage). Now when I post that Windows 7 is faster on my oldish mac mini than OS X I get all kinds of flames from people who are using Apple computers for 1 or 2 years and think Apple is perfection in every way,