

Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists - nprincigalli
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-causes-religious-reaction-in-brains-of-fans-say-neuroscientists/

======
spoondan
I suspect that this was originally intended as a bit of fun, not to be taken
seriously. Alas, it's being reported as if it were serious and I feel like
someone must point out the obvious, grievous flaws:

According to the article, the finding is based on an MRI of exactly one
subject, Alex Brooks. Brooks seems to be exceptionally ardent and there's
nothing to suggest he is at all representative of anyone but himself. It is
never really safe to draw broad conclusions from studying one subject. But it
is ridiculous to do so with someone you've specifically selected because they
are exceptional.

Yet even if Brooks were representative, there's nothing within the article to
suggest that the brain activity detected has anything specifically to do with
religious thoughts or feelings. Yes, those areas light up when religious
images are shown to religious people. But there are obvious alternate
explanations that aren't addressed. Perhaps those areas of the brain light up
when shown familiar visual stimuli. An Apple fan strongly recognizes an iMac.
A Jesus fan strongly recognizes the crucifix. Or perhaps this brain activity
is just caused by seeing something you like. You could control against these
confounding factors, but they evidently have not.

Basically, unless the article has glossed over a lot, there is no finding here
at all and this is the BBC pretending at science.

~~~
recoiledsnake
>You could control against these confounding factors, but they evidently have
not

How do you know they haven't? I would presume a team of neuroscientists would
know better than not do that unless I find reason to believe otherwise.

From the article: > Previously, the scientists had studied the brains of those
of religious faith

It would be interesting to see the results of that study to see if it contains
details of controlling for the factors you mention.

------
sjs
Not only their fans. For some reason almost nobody can look at Apple and their
products objectively. It's love/hate.

My best guess is that people who care about little details like 2 volume
levels for headphones & speakers, pausing your iPod when you unplug the
headphones, etc. really love Apple (that's the case with me), so when we go
off about how great they are someone else who sat down at a Mac with a default
config couldn't right click, maximize a window, etc. and _hated_ it, it makes
him hate it even more because to him it's blind Apple love. Nobody could
possibly love such a hamstrung system in the hater's eyes, and in the lover's
eyes Apple can do no wrong. So the rift widens because of the strong opposing
feelings. Talking often makes it worse.

~~~
zwieback
I'm even worse: love and hate at the same time! Love my Apple ][, hate
everything Mac, love iPod, hatehatehate iTunes. Would probably love iPhone if
I wasn't too cheap to own anything more than a Tracfone.

Also, back before LANs were standardized I worked on a AppleTalk server that
ran on PCs. Love AFP and ATP!!

------
RexRollman
Can't wait to see them try this with Emacs and Vi users.

------
tomelders
Or, Religion causes an "Apple" reaction in believers brains. I don't think
it's fair that a certain brain activity is named after the stimulus that came
first.

~~~
sjs
Is the Jobs .... the Job? :p

------
garret
Related: <http://paulgraham.com/identity.html>

------
saool
I guess fanatism is fanatism after all, no matter if it's about hardware
companies or religion.

We want to believe, lol.

------
gose
Reminds me of this quote from Simon Sinek:

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it."

He uses Apple quite a bit in his analogy here:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi...](http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html)

------
cateye
The page asks for a permission to install a Chrome extension. That really
causes a reaction in my brains.

------
timinman
Not surprising at all, but 'religious' is a pretty poor descriptor. And this
has been around for a while.

~~~
lotusleaf1987
I agree, a better way to describe it is loyalty beyond reason.

------
jdietrich
People react to images they care strongly about.

Film at eleven.

------
othermaciej
Apple study causes 'confirmation bias' in brains of Apple detractors, say
high-status people with valuable credentials.

------
lotusleaf1987
It's not unique to Apple. Nike, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Yankees, and many
others do the same thing. It's known as cult branding. There's a good book on
it called" The Power of Cult Branding" by Mathew Ragas.

~~~
martythemaniak
Many companies try it, but very very few succeed. Nike, MB, BMW and the
Yankees don't count IMO. Apple, Porsche and Harley Davidson do, and I can't
think of any other examples.

~~~
trobertson
I'm going to have to disagree with you when you say "the Yankees don't count".
Sport teams (at least in the USA) elicit a huge religion-esque response. I
don't watch sports because it seems, to me, that most of the fans at games are
caught in fanatical religious worship of their chosen team. It's depressing to
see all their passion directed at something non-contributive like sports.

------
gubatron
religion == fanatism

