The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

by Kevin Simler

To understand the social component of lifestyle advertising, we need to turn to an influential 1983 paper by the sociologist W. Phillips Davison. Davison was interested in how our perceptions and behavior can be manipulated by different forms of persuasive mass media—not just advertising, but also propaganda, political rhetoric, and news coverage of current events. He noticed that people often claim not to be influenced by a particular piece of media, and yet believe that other people will be influenced. For example, when New Yorkers heard a message from one gubernatorial candidate attacking another candidate, they said it had only a small effect on their personal voting decisions, but estimated that it would have a greater effect on the average New Yorker.24 Davison dubbed this the “third-person effect,” and it goes a long way toward explaining how lifestyle advertising might influence consumers.