Understanding human nature (Part 1)

September 7th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Tags: Copywriting · Internet Marketing · Persuasion & Influence

If you want to become a truly successful copywriter, getting to intimately know your fellow humans is a critical part of your learning curve. After all, if you want to sell anything to people, you need to know what it is that really makes them tick.

Fortunately, humans as a mass, are incredibly predictable animals and even though all six billion of them feel like they are “unique” and “alone in this world”, they are surprisingly similar to each other. So much in fact, that it has become quite easy to study and create very accurate profiles of them.

During the next few posts, we’ll dig deep into the common elements that all humans share and how it apply this knowledge to write better advertising.

Part 1 - The journey of life.

Developmental psychologist Gail Sheehy, using a series of case studies, discovered that most humans (both male and female) go through a certain number of crisis points or stages that psychologically define their lifetime. These are the stages:

18 to 22 – Finding a role in life.
Before 18, the beginning of their adult lives, teenagers are often heard saying things like “My parents just don’t understand” and “I must get away from my parents”. However, these are normally just words and rarely any action is taken in this matter.

After that point has past, most people do start the process of separating themselves from their parents, family and any bonds from childhood. This breakup can be circumstantial (like going to college, taking a short-term trip on their own or leasing an apartment).

The goal of this period is to separate their views from those of their parents and testing those “independent beliefs” in a real world scenario. While testing their beliefs, young adults are prone to be drawn to fads and trends. Particularly those fads that are more obscure and inaccessible to their parents or other authority figures.

It is also important to note that while teenagers in this situation have a defiant behavior, most of them harbor a secret fear of still being children and unfit to “make it” in the adult world. They also tend to look for friends living a similar situation and go as far as considering them a surrogate family.

The rest of the 20’s – Shaping the dream.
From 22 to 30, most young adults change focus from the “interior turmoil of late adolescence” to a more practical and external situation of realizing their personal aspirations for life.

During this period, people will normally try to figure out what their real goals are in life and how to go about reaching them. They may either latch on to a stereotype or try to break the mold and make completely “individual” choices. 20-somethings face a lot of pressure from society, their families, school and even their peer groups about doing what they “should be doing”. This may mean settling down, marriage, family and commitment… but it may also mean the opposite, some groups may advice them to “follow one’s dreams” and not commit to anything in life at this point.

Sheehy says: “One of the most terrifying aspects of the twenties is the inner conviction that the choices we make are irreversible. It is largely a false fear. Change is quite possible, and some alteration of our original choices is probably inevitable.”

It doesn’t matter which path the young adult takes. There are no rights or wrongs unless the choices are taken to the extreme. Settling down too firmly can lead the person to feel trapped in a relationship. On the other hand, not committing to anything at all can make a person prone to bouncing from one relationship and job to another all the time.

The early 30’s – Questioning earlier choices.
The 30’s is a decade of deep questioning and turbulence for many people. During this period, many reevaluate the career choices and personal relationship choices they made during their twenties.

Many single people in their 30’s tend to get an urge to find a life partner. And people who have been involved in serious relationships for more than 7 years, tend to feel discontent about them – many ending in divorce or calling for a serious review of the marriage and each partner’s aspirations. Couples without children consider having or adopting them… and the stay-at-home parent (mom or dad) feels the need to break out and to something on their own.

Career choices normally come under equally intense scrutiny. Thirty-somethings tend to reevaluate their job and ask where they see themselves in five or ten years. Are there better opportunities out there in another firm or should they branch out and start their own business? It is no coincidence that a large portion of online entrepreneurs (the dotcomers) fall into this age group.

35 to 40 – The search for a true identity.
According to current figures of life expectancy, the mid to late thirties represent a person’s official entry into the middle age group. Physical prowess, once taken for granted in youth, now diminishes and people realize that they probably have less time ahead of them than has already past.

People in this age group come to terms with who they really are and they try to figure out how they plan to spend the second part of their lives.

For unmarried or childless women an aggressive “last chance” urgency hits, probably due to physiological reasons, around the age of 35. For men it normally happens 5 years later and it is referred to in pop culture as men’s “mid-life crisis”. The clichés of the husband running off with the secretary in a red Corvette are based on males in their 40’s who made strong commitments early in life (relationship and career-wise) and then failed to deal with the feelings of restlessness in their early 30’s.

People at 40 – no matter what they achieved in life – tend to feel worn down and unappreciated. Due to this, some can become self-destructive while others develop a gentler and more principled side.

45 to 50 – Revitalization.
During this period those people who have appropriately dealt with the identity and validation issues that come with mid-life crisis, tend to get a renewed vigor and self-purpose. They like to call these “the best years of their life” and live a mellower, happier life. During this time, friends become more important and parents are able to let their children get on with their lives.

Those who fail in the mid-life crisis transition, tend to get feelings of isolation and abandonment. Sheehy says: “Parents will become children, children will become strangers; a mate will grow away or go away; the career will become just a job”. At 50 this shock repeats more forcefully and pushes a few of the later-bloomers toward seeking revitalization.

Summary.
These crisis points in life may manifest differently from person to person, but they can still be used as a very vital guideline to define humans by age and target them with more effective advertising that “gets where they are in life” and connects with them at a deeper level (by making more sense to them both psychologically as well as emotionally).