STREAM
BEING HUMAN Conversation

DATE & TIME
26 July 2017

LOCATION
THE ETHICS CENTRE

Can we ever be fully objective?

We’d like to think we are calm, logical thinkers who make rational decisions. Unfortunately, that’s definitively untrue. Sadly, neuroscience and psychology have had their say: we’re not as smart as we think we are.  

We make fast and unfair assumptions of others, take shortcuts in our thinking, and are ingrained with biases. In a sold out session on 26 July, Adam Ferrier exposed how advertisers skip the smart you, directly to your deep rooted dispositions.

Most of us think we’re media savvy enough to see how the world works – quick to spot when someone is trying to pull a fast one. And we’d like to think we’re good people too. Opposed to racism and sexism. Never too quick to judge.

Sadly neuroscience and psychology reveal otherwise. All of us take shortcuts in our thinking. We often make fast and unfair assumptions of others – favouring people from similar age groups or backgrounds and identifying with those who look like us, over those who don’t. We’re ingrained with biases.

And even though we’re becoming more aware of the ways our biases are getting the best of our good and reasonable selves, we let advertising exploit them all the time. Our unconscious biases love advertising – a lot more than we do.

Understanding these quiet biases can open us up, make us less afraid of the unfamiliar and more tolerant of our differences.

Adam Ferrier joins The Ethics Centre to offer a behind the scenes tour of of our own psychology. He’ll reveal how advertisers skip past the smart version you and talk directly to your deep rooted dispositions.

Speakers

Adam Ferrier

is co-founder of creative advertising agency THINKERBELL. Before creating this latest agency, he co-founded the award winning Naked Communications and was partner at cummins&partners. He has degrees in clinical psychology and commerce. Adam wrote, The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour.

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Who is it for?


  • THE ACTIVIST
  • THE BUDDING ETHICIST
  • THE THINKER
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What you'll take away


  • 01HOW BIAS SHAPES THE WAY YOU THINK AND ACT
  • 02STRATEGIES TO OWN YOUR AUTONOMY
  • 03TIPS TO OUTSMART THE ADVERTISERS
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Things to think about