UNIT 5

Mirroring: we think, feel and act like others do

Nothing interests us more than other people. Mirroring helps us learn from one another to create good relationships.
Mirroring allows us to internally simulate the thinking, feelings and actions of others. This occurs mostly unconsciously and
automatically. Mirroring starts early between mother and child: mom opens her mouth when feeding and the child imitates.
Laughter that causes laughter in others and yawning that causes yawning are examples of mirroring.

People can infect other people with their own excitement, but also with their dissatisfaction. Mirroring helps us learn from
one another even when we are just watching or listening. One of the biggest distinctions between personal experience and
observation is the intensity: personal experiences activate countless sensory cells while observation triggers much fewer.
If mirroring could explain group-processes of thought, feeling and action: what is the importance of mirroring to the
building and effects of brands?

We have already discussed the two systems that guide us through life: the punishment system, which attends to bad feelings
and the reward system, which attends to good feelings. When we perceive emotions in other people, we reproduce the
observed feeling, e.g. joy or disgust we experience the emotion ourselves. Further: we imitate the gestures and
movements we observe in others. When some one smiles, we smile. When someone shifts their posture, we shift ours. We
usually dont even notice we do this. We watch the protagonists Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as the stretch out their
arms from the bow of the Titanic. A headwind blows their hair. We observers can feel the fresh sea breeze. A few minutes
later, disoriented passengers struggle to escape the sinking ship. Now our hearts are beating fast too as we anticipate
jumping into the ocean. Mirroring leads us to believe that we are actually experiencing the scenes on screen we react to
our observations as if they were our own actions.

Observing emotions is like experiencing them, watching an action is like doing it. Even listening to emotions can
suffice.

THE IMPORTANCE TO OUR BRAND AND THE FORMATION OF POWERFUL EMOTIONS

We check other peoples feelings, especially their mouth and eyes. We want to know why they feel the way they do. If they
look like they are feeling good, we naturally want to do what they are doing. This is the group-principle in advertising: show
the user how she would feel if she bought the brand. We watch eBay advertising and want to shop there too.

FOUR IMPORTANT TYPES OF MIRRORING

1. We mirror expression
Expression is the sender and receiver of information. 43 facial muscles speak a universally understood language: sadness,
anger, fear, disgust, contempt, surprise, joy. Local dialects exist along side this universal language. Paul Ekman is the
authority in the field and an expert on facial expressions. Ekman discovered that our face looks like it does according to how
we feel: there are the feelings of all mankind. Ekman has identified 10,000 facial expressions. Non-experts are able to identify
3,000 of those. Ekman and colleague Wallace Friesen examined all the combinations of the 43 muscles over a 7 year period
and filtered out the ones most important to us; they found 60 versions of anger and 18 ways to smile relief, wonder,
thanks, schadenfreude, anticipation, excitement, etc.

Check out the video about Paul Ekman in our additional material.

Facial expression heavily influences the effect a person has: if a person looks friendly and happy, she is more likely to be
described as attractive; on the other hand, sad and annoyed people seem unattractive. The longer we watch the manner of
another, the more likely their mood is to rub off on us.

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Core questions
which one-of-a-kind, rewarding feelings distinguish our brand? (reward promise, see chapter 1)
how do these feelings appear in facial expressions?
have we used pictures and video depicting these expressions?

2. We attempt to think what others are thinking

We are able to place ourselves in the minds of others. Experts term this the theory of mind. We assume what the other
person is thinking and recognize the same in ourselves, i.e. in our feelings, desires, ideas, motives, expectations and opinions.
Take the example of a mystery. The viewer is supposed to figure out how the culprit thinks, feels and acts. These processes
play a valuable role in learning patterns. Just by learning and observation, we are able to mirror anothers actions inside
ourselves.

One consequence for our digital brand is that we can increase the users inner involvement if we pull her mind into the
scene, e.g. with tasks to work through or thoughts she must interpret ("What is the hero thinking?"; see storytelling in
chapter 3). Another example is stories where it is important to recognize the motives behind the action in order to predict
future decisions and action. Such actions should be very emotional and meaningful for the brand. A result of learning by
patterns and example is that the user can see and learn the one-of-a-kind and appealing emotions connected to using our
brand.

Core questions
which thoughts, doubts and decisions can play an important role for our brand? (see chapter 3)
how can we involve the users thoughts, e.g. with tasks or problems for the hero to solve ("what can I do to solve this
problem...?")?
do we show the user how she can utilize our brand? Do we show others using the brand? Do we show the feelings that
distinguish our brand?

3. Others infect us with their feelings

Catching others feelings like catching a cold is a kind of mirroring. Experts refer to this as social contagion. Catching a
feeling means that users unconsciously imitate the feelings of others as they observe them. Social contagion means that
those feelings spread among a group, e.g. a community or in social media (see chapter 2), because the participants mirror
the emotion and action. Plenty of every-day examples illustrate how emotional conditions are contagious: when people
laugh, others in the group join.

Mirroring can impact a general mood over the long term but can also be sudden and spontaneous like laughing or crying.
Most of us are aware of sketch televisions use of laugh tracks to mirror an audience that does not exist. If we ensure positive
experiences, they can have a contagious effect on an entire group.

Core questions
which one-of-a-kind, rewarding feelings distinguish our brand? (reward promise, see chapter 1)
how do we ensure that as many players as possible demonstrate these feelings? (hero, users, social media)

4. We gauge our attention according to others

Another contagious kind of mirroring is the shared attention toward others, called joint attention. Healthy social
relationships require an understanding for the expectations, desires and motives of others. A substantial step in that
direction is to determine the goals of another by interpreting the meaning of her look, and then turning your own attention
toward her goals thereby establishing joint attention.
The relevant consequence for our digital brand is to steer the attention of the visitor through perspective to action on the
stage the evokes strong emotions. This can be products, brand symbols and other people.

Core questions
which elements are key to understanding our brand message?
how do we make sure our users attention is properly directed on that message? Do we illustrate an interesting motif close
by? Are we using dynamic colors like red, yellow and orange to highlight the elements?

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(Foto: Herbst)

CHECKLISTE: PEOPLE AS MOTIF

direct eye contact is most powerful.

we notice eyes and mouth first. They should be the first visible items on the image.
smiles produces spontaneous and uncontrollable smiles from the observer. A grim look is likewise mirrored.
shot from below, the observer appears to look up at the subject in the image.
an understanding head nod gets much better results.
action and dynamism increase an images effect. We should show action from our brand story (see chapter 3) that clarifies
our reward promise.
the logo or name should be visible on the image so it is clearly assigned.
interactions among people are especially interesting to observers.
the clarity of the image fosters contrast: large and small, old and young, black and white. Try to use such contrasts for your
image to strengthen the memory.

WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER

_ the importance of the three pivotal principles to elicit strong feelings
_ how digital brand codes make your brand effective in digital media and to how to produce/stage the brand using digital
technologies
_ how to achieve multisensory effects to strongly enhance user emotion
_ you know that people play a prominent role in emotionally boosting the brand, and how to effectively accomplish this
_ you know about the future of Digital Branding

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