Chapter 2

The brain

EXERCISE

What stands out?

What are the first two messages you can think of from the last week? They can be any type of message – an email, a letter, a leaflet, an advert, a radio announcement, a poster, and so on. Write down the first two that come into your head. For each one, write down why that one came to your mind. What was special about it? What happened that was different from other messages?

Traditionally, theories of communication have largely been dominated by homo economicus – that is, the idea that people are rational actors who put careful thought into their actions in order to maximise the benefit to themselves. Of course, consumers do make rational choices. For example, in ultimatum games like the Prisoner’s ...

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