More Proof Apple is a cult?

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by boswd

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...uroscientists/


I thought I saw people genuflecting walking into an Apple Store

but noo they aren't iSheep

I think that you (and the media - and the scientists) have missed the boat here. The key to understanding this study is not in the comparison of Apple and Religion in the realm of Belief, but rather, the comparison of the two in the realm of Art.

Here's the first sentence of the article:

In a recently screened BBC documentary, UK neuroscientists suggested that the brains of Apple devotees are stimulated by Apple imagery in the same way that the brains of religious people are stimulated by religious imagery.

The key word is "imagery." What is being evoked is not a religious response, but a response to images.

My guess is that had the scientists bothered to test, say, people's reactions to other objects - photographs, paintings, statues, &c - they would have gotten the same response. They should have spent a little time in MoMA, measuring people's responses to the objects displayed there.

That's not to say that there isn't something to the idea that certain consumers of Apple products exhibit cult-like behavior. It's just that this study isn't proof of that.

All this study shows is that Religion has successfully presented its images as Art, which the scientists would have known had they majored in Art History.

Likewise, Apple has successfully presented its images as Art, which the scientists would have known had they majored in Marketing.

Unfortunately, the scientists only majored in Finding Out If Something's Happening. Just because you know something's happening doesn't mean that you know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

[wodin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_techne...ney-for-ipad-2