The science of measuring audience engagement — Dr. Nick Hobson // Emotive Technologies Inc.

Today, Dr. Nick Hobson, chief scientist at Emotive Technologies, continues the conversation with Ben about the science behind consumer behavior. It’s important for marketers to understand the emotional blend of their customers. Can you use data to understand someone’s mental state? Ben and Dr. Nick discuss the science of measuring audience engagement.
About the speaker

Dr. Nick Hobson

Emotive Technologies Inc.

 - Emotive Technologies Inc.

Nick is a Chief Scientist at Emotive Technologies

Show Notes

  • ?02:46 : Using data to figure out someones decision making process
    The human mind and emotions are very very complex. Science, so far, is yet to find a way to quantify human emotions in such a way. Dr. Nick talks explains the analytical process of measuring the mental state of someone using data and experimentation using technology like FMRI.

Quotes

  • “We could take pictures of the brain and get actual data to see what drives activity so we can provide stimulation and understand what's happening in the brain. And then start to use data to figure out some idea of the decision making process.”

  • “So what FMRI is or how it works is the brain sort of does its thing, right? It's a set of neurons or neural firing. And when that happens, it needs intense blood flow so the blood flows to that part of the brain. FMRI is actually recording that data.”

  • “Look at the thing you're sort of interested in and try to angulate. You need to come at it with different methodologies, different ways of capturing those data and asking that question. The cheapest, the easiest and the most scalable way is through self-report.”

  • “We're not very good at introspecting our internal state. So we as researchers and marketers need to think about new and exciting ways to get that information from the individual through some sort of more implicit means.”

  • “So much of it depends on how you're asking the question, whether it's a quantitative or qualitative approach. If you frame the questions in the right way, the resulting response, behavior, and answers you get from those prospects is going to be good.”

  • “So you have to test, you have to validate beforehand, get those qualitative, get those quantitative items and statements and frame them in such a way that you're going to get more of an accurate output of human psychology and human behavior.”

  • “So with our tool, Apex, we gather the ratings of 16 attitudes, 16 feelings, and 16 beliefs. We feed that into our IP and our algorithm spits out how every single one of those 16 elements drives the consumer to act or to advocate for your brand or product.”

  • “So psychometrics is the science and the technical study of measurement and how you design questions to measure and to track certain internal States of the human being.”

About the speaker

Dr. Nick Hobson

Emotive Technologies Inc.

 - Emotive Technologies Inc.

Nick is a Chief Scientist at Emotive Technologies

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