Brain Science and Your Business
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Several days ago in the New York Times there was a fascinating article about neuroscience research on the brain in regards to fear. The most interesting parts of the article are the implications of how best to respond in hard economic times. What the researchers discovered is that our brain responds to anticipated pain or loss. There is an “endowment effect” which means that when this happens, we tend to hold onto what we have. When the fear center of the brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-taking are turned off. We tend to stay with what we have.
What does all this say about our businesses? We must turn off the fear center, stop listening to the dire predictions, don’t hang out with those negative types. If we do not, we will stay stagnant and fail. What we DO want to do is let go of the old . We aren’t going back to where we were, but we can go ahead to something new and better. Believing that we can retrieve “the way it was” is a symptom of the fear based endowment effect. Instead, start moving toward new opportunities. Take risks and expand into new areas. This is the scientific solution to the current situation.
