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Finally! Some great news about aging!
As we get older - our happiness increases, thanks in part to increased release of oxytocin as we age.
Our founders, Dr. Paul Zak and Dr. Jorge Barraza, worked on a study in Dr. Zak's lab, the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, which demonstrated that older folks released oxytocin more often - leading to higher satisfaction with their lives.
"Oxytocin has been shown to influence trust, altruism, charity, and generosity." says the study1. And, until now, we didn't have great research on the impact of age on the release of oxytocin.
Neuroscience News recaps: "People who release more of the neurochemical oxytocin are kinder to others and tend to be more satisfied with their lives. In addition, oxytocin release increases with age, showing why, on average, people are more caring as they get older2."
Here at Immersion - we are watching the reposts and headlines roll in, and we can't stop thinking about what this means for all of YOU. The people creating the content and experiences that your customers encounter everyday.
Borrowing a key finding in this study, we understand that the release of oxytocin creates happier people and better experiences. And knowing that Immersion measures, in part, the release of oxytocin in the brain in real-time, we can extrapolate that creating better experiences - those with high scores of immersion - increases your customers' happiness.
We have the power to deliver true, life-improving joy by improving experiences and content.
Now, we don't want to be too grandiose . . . . so let's break it down.
We understand that more frequent release of oxytocin creates a more satisfying life. Our content and experiences can create a release of that oxytocin in our customers' brains.
So by measuring immersion in our customers to iteratively improve our content and experiences - we can create a more frequent release of oxytocin that ultimately drives higher levels of happiness for our customers.
"The modern approach is that businesses that want long-term success need to bring joy to customers. Joy is the foundation for the experience economy." - Dr. Paul Zak
Brands continually find ways to improve customer experience. They call it UX or lean on Focus Groups and consumer feedback to maximize these positive experiences for their target customer. But we aren't often thinking about the magic in what we are doing.
Dr. Zak continues, "Neurologic immersion correlates with enjoyment and builds a desire to repeat an experience. This is both a scientific reason to create the extraordinary for customers but also a moral argument.
Amazing customer experiences improve customers’ emotional and physical health and might even extend their lives. At the same time, businesses that offer extraordinary experiences to their customers will consistently grow profits because customers’ brains want to re-experience the extraordinary."
Through this lens - the power of improving a customer's experience becomes a lot more than just an ad campaign or a great corporate event.
People interact with brands everyday. It's baked into the human experience. As we strive to improve these experiences, focused on driving our sales - let's not forget to examine the overall human impact of more frequent oxytocin release that create happier and more satisfying lives.
"Measuring Immersion can create the experiences that [everyone] wants, giving them jolts of joy that can drive up with satisfaction with life and extend their health and happiness." - Dr. Paul Zak
Are we saying commercials will change the world? Or that corporate events can eradicate depression?
Of course not.
But armed with this knowledge makes our work a little bit better: more powerful, more meaningful. And, with Immersion, it's easy to measure and iterate toward these improvements that help imbue our output with meaning that directly improves the lives of the people we reach.
1: Published Study in FrontiersIN.org
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