Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 11:03:37 +0200
From: Mario Vaneechoutte <Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Copying, imitation, transformation, replication
Paul Marsden wrote:
> Mario on the Werther Effect.
Paul, I don't have much time to continue this interesting discussion, but I just
want to pick out one thing briefly.(Also: Watch out!: Paul is playing authority
here, referring to the literature as a back up. It might be possible that this
literature also tells other things than Paul beliefs and makes us believe. I
don't say this is so, but I have no defense here or I cannot discuss his
interpretation of literature, since it is impossible for me to read it (would
take me days to find the cited papers) and to discuss it. Very tricky
situation)Paul
> But the point is I just
> don't have to posit internal states to predict suicide rates, or Coca-cola
> sales.
Coca-cola and all marketeers are pushing buttons in our minds which make people
buy Coca-cola or Richard Brodies' book (which was written also as an
illustration of how marketing works). As a marketeer, don't you have to know
about the mind to know which buttons you should push to optimize your sales? As
a missionary, shouldn't you know to which words people most rapidly respond? The
word 'certainty' (with its transformations like 'success', 'wealth', 'eternal
life', 'pleasure') is the kind of hook I am thinking of.
>
>
> Paul Marsden
> Graduate Research Centre in the Social Sciences
> University of Sussex
> e-mail PaulMarsden@msn.com
> tel/fax (44) (0) 117 974 1279
>
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission:
> http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
>
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-- Mario Vaneechoutte Department Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology & Immunology University Hospital De Pintelaan 185 9000 GENT Belgium Phone: +32 9 240 36 92 Fax: +32 9 240 36 59 E-mail: Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.beJ. Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
The memetic origin of language: humans as musical primates http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/vaneechoutte_m&skoyles_jr.html
=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit