Category: Behavioral evolution

In the Netherlands 2007 has seen a 4% increase in working from home (via am). Working at home, working elsewhere, you make a contribution to the world for which you are paid, that is the essence. We used to work on the land, so close to our homes. Then came the factories, then the offices. That’s what we call work now. Soon work will once again be an activity that you do during the week, in the places which happen to be convenient at the time. Naturally we will still need to meet the people with whom we are working, but we will plan those meetings in a more flexible way and at all sorts of different locations. Everything will become a lot more flexible. Most important is leaving behind the idea that work is something that you do in the physical presence of the boss. 

Studies have shown an increase in the levels of aggressive behaviour in people who play violent video games. Less well educated young men who enjoy playing games with violent central characters and also like to be the ‘hero’ in real life behave significantly more aggressively after playing video games than other young men (via tg, Dutch). We are making the virtual world more and more real. What we see today is child’s play compared to what we’ll see in the future. Our human brains are not built to be able to differentiate between the two worlds, they mix it all up together. This will eventually lead to the banning of violence in video games as well as in passive media, so called films. It will take a couple of decades, but we’re slowly moving toward pamper planet. 

Northwestern University School of Law‘s Lawyer Anthony D’Amato (US) shows a correlation between a huge decrease in rapes and an increase in watching porn. In countries (or states) with a high internet connectivity the rape rate is lower. So the more porn, the fewer rapes (pt). You could simply conclude that it is all about satisfying needs. Once a need has been satisfied, the ‘tension’ is gone, and the need seems to have decreased for a certain time. The insight that the virtual world (in which porn can be seen) can satisfy all kinds of needs might very well reduce the amount of violent crimes in the future. After all, the physical human being will have plenty of opportunities to work out his angers in a virtual environment. I wonder what the experts think of this.

In China a 17 year old boy put a class mate on fire because he thought he was a fire magician from World of Warcraft (cb, Dutch). We imitate the physical world so well, that the virtual world looks more and more real. In 10-15 years our virtual experiences will become so real, that we can hardly understand in what world we have what experiences. In the decades after that the virtual world will keep developing, and the experiences will become more real, but we will get an international ban on violence against other people, against animals or against nature. To make it clear: violence in movies then will also be banned, as those are part of the virtual world as well, and movies too will become more and more real. Earlier or later a total ban on violence on a worldwide scale is unstoppable.

Two thirds of the Dutch population sometimes use comparison sites. Kieskeurig.nl is the best known comparison site in the Netherlands (67 percent have heard of it, 53 percent have used it). Consumentenbond (respectively 60 percent and 38 percent) and Vergelijk.nl (40 percent and 27 percent) are also frequently visited (mf, Dutch). People tend to have more and more faith in brands which compare the complete range of products, and less in the supplier of the product itself (who will always give his own product the highest ranking). These new types of brands can grow to be the strongest brands ever: personal brands. Below you can read more about the survey.

Vodafone in research discovered that women call Customer Service more often then men, that they call longer, send more text messages and more often have their voice mail on (tc, Dutch). That is, women (in general) communicate more and (again, in general) better. Like they do in the physical world. As the virtual world starts to look more and more like the physical world, our behavior in the virtual world will also become identical to our behavior in the physical world. Thus, in the virtual world the division of roles also comes through.

Reviews of other users are becoming more and more important for online purchases through comparison sites, while price becomes less important. Research shows that 49% of the online buyers state that price is the most important factor to compare products, a decline of 9% compared to 2003. Feedback of other online buyers increased by 11% (mf, Dutch). The effect of other people’s influence becomes stronger. Now the reviews of random others are still very important. If in the future we get a connection with our personal contact brand, for example Hyves, we will also see the experiences of friends (or friends of friends): people we trust. The effect will be even larger. This means that products (including services) have to become better, for a fair price. And that on a worldwide scale.