Gender and the Sustainable Brain

The differences, however subtle, in the ways men and women tend to think and communicate may have important implications for sustainability. According to a 2003 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “women’s higher levels of empathy, altruism, and personal responsibility make them more interested in environmentalism as a way to protect not only themselves and their families, but also others.

It would seem tha many women are receptive to environmentalism and sustainability not necessarily for "green" reasons so much as for the well-being of their families. And if parenthood, not gender, is a critical factor encouraging sustainable choices, then certain progressive policies, such as guaranteed parental leave for both men and women, might have positive implications for sustainability.

Gender and the Sustainable Brain

Gender and Marketing

There are fundamental differences between the male and female brain. They’re both structural and behavorial, they’re formed at birth, they last throughout life, and they affect many different aspects of our attitudes and behaviors. Some of the most important differences:

Women’s brains have more distributed functions than men, especially for language and memory. Women’s brains have stronger connections between the two hemispheres.

Women have a larger hippocampus, a major area of the brain that is involved in memory function. Women rely more heavily on brain areas that contain mirror neurons during empathic interaction. Mirror neurons enable a person to feel what they see another person is feeling.

What are the practical implications of these facts? Women have better memory for detailed information than do men. In terms of evolution, this may be related to female competition: females compete with other females in more subtle ways that may rely more on processing finer details; for example, of social cues. Women have a greater capacity to empathize, enhanced language ability, and stronger emotional memory. Men tend to have superior spatial ability, and the ability to build systems. These hard-wired brain differences are revealed in infancy: female babies make more eye contact with caregivers than baby boys. On the other hand, male infants prefer to look at machines or puzzles.

Dr. Robert Knight, one of the world’s top neuroscientists puts it, ‘the brain makes behavior.’ Our neurological research reveals that women respond significantly more strongly to certain styles of packaging designs, advertising messages, and store layouts. We also know already, from our library of neurological ‘best practices’, that women respond to language and imagery differently than men.

The message for marketers? Get your product design, packaging, pricing, branding, messaging, in-store presentation and more in sync with how the female subconscious mind receives and processes information, and directs behavior, and your chances of marketplace success rise accordingly.

Who are you?

"Figure out who you are, what you stand for, and why you are different than anyone or anything else. Create a story that communicates your value and your market differentiation. Pull the key words that you have used to create that story and weave them into everything that you say, do and publish about yourself and yourbusiness. Tell your story relentlessly, passionately, and unapologetically to anyone who will listen." Liz Chamberlin, storyteller.

Social Identity and Leadership

No matter how skilled a person might be, however, a leader's effectiveness does not lie entirely in his or her own hands. Leaders are highly dependent on followers. Do followers find their leader's visions of identity compelling? Do followers learn the intended lessons from rituals and ceremonies? Our new psychological analysis tells us that for leadership to function well, leaders and followers must be bound by a shared identity and by the quest to use that identity as a blueprint for action".

"The development of a shared social identity is the basis of influential and creative leadership. If you control the definition of identity, you can change the world". Scientific American Mind. Volume 18. Number 4

www.sciammind.com

Women and Shopping

"We can conclude that although a person's biology plays a major part in how and what they do, the society in which a person is raised is highly influential as well. These cultural influences are present from birth and may have a significant role in explaining the gender differences in shopping behavior. The may also explain the socialization of women to view shopping as a predominantly feminine activity." Consumer Behavior. Women and Shopping. Patricia Huddleston and Stella Minahan.

"When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It's a whole different way of thinking." Elayne Boosler, comedian