An Aging Society Is a Right-Minded Society

Nearly two decades ago I went out on a neurological limb in my book Serving the Ageless Market. I proposed that people tend to draw more on the brain’s right hemisphere in organizing perceptions, thoughts and decisions in later life. Few brain researchers would have made such a claim at the time I wrote the book in the late 1980s. In fact, psychiatrist Louis Kopolow, who wrote the foreword, cautioned me about making such a representation, especially because I was not a brain scientist, but simply a marketer who loved reading about the brain and mind.

Here is the story of how I came to formulate my hypothesis about increased influence of the right brain on perceptions, thoughts and decisions in later life.

In the 1970s, I read about psychobiologist Roger Sperry’s studies of “split brain” patients – patients whose hemispheres had been surgically disconnected after suffering life-threatening seizures.

For the first time, scientists were able to study the brain’s right and left hemisphere independently of each other. While the operation stopped the seizures, Sperry discovered that there were in effect two minds in one brain – one emanating from the brain’s right hemisphere, the other from its left hemisphere.

So astonishing and of such fundamental importance was Sperry’s work with split brain patients that he was a recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in medicine.

By now, nearly every one knows that the left hemisphere is the “rational, analytic” side of the brain while the right hemisphere is the “emotional, creative” side of the brain.

The “left brain” parses reality in bits and pieces and sorts them into separate categories. The “right brain” interprets reality in terms of relationships – how what comes to its attention is is connected to the contents of its environment. It is the pattern-seeking side of the brain. The left brain is more comfortable with rules than the right brain, which often looks for untried paths to accomplish something.

Not long after reading about Sperry’s work in brain lateralization, I began delving into the work of Abraham Maslow. To my astonishment I discovered that Maslow’s description of people who had reached the advanced state of psychological development that he called self-actualization somewhat paralleled Sperry and Bogen’s description of right brain specialty functions. Maslow reported that he encountered few people under the age of 60 who had reached a state of self-actualization. Thus, I concluded, there is a correlation of age with the rightward tilt of older brains.

I also concluded that people who were lagging developmentally and operating at lower levels of intellectual expression likely did experienced little if any shift toward the right brain in later life, and thought that this would probably be more commonplace among older people in the lower socioeconomic brackets.

Now, many years after I postulated the hemispheric shift hypothesis it is being confirmed with the aid of brain imaging technology. Check out the article by Gene Cohen that talks about this shift in the January 16th issue of Newsweek.

In the next post I will talk about how this rightward shift of the brain's functions is changing the face of marketing.

Comments

[Rick Resnick]

Right-brain value in our workplace has long been overlooked!

[Marianne Richmond]

David,
Interesting, in the context of your thoughts and the Newsweek report and common perceptions of the aging "stagnant" mind set... I was reading a post on learning from novelty on Eide Neurolearning Blog...their point was that surprise helps us look at information in a new way, leading to innovation; "this kind of learning requires bilateral brain activation because of integration of information, and reframing of knowledge, and then specific involvement of the reflective right lateral prefrontal cortex." In other words, surprise an "old dog with some tricks" and innovation may be more suited to the older brain.

Another factor that I think is going to be relevant into the future is the influence of corporate downsizing and other employment shifts that force career changes or retirement decisions, people having children later in life and so on.

The stage theorists and the Newsweek article talk about the stages/phases by age increment such as a midlife re-evaluation between the ages of 40-65....well at 45 you brain may be telling you one thing but your life may be forcing something else. Women worry about their biological clock ticking to have children...I think it may tick on the other end: when you are 55 and your brain is telling you to "shed inhibitions and express yourself freely" and the college tuition bill is saying put on that coat and tie or high heels and get back to your desk.

[David]

Marianne,

Thoughtful observations you make, especially about circumstance de jour that conflict with the natural path of personal growth and development.

Your observation "that surprise helps us look at information in a new way, leading to innovation" brings to mind one of the neurotransmitters that the Posit Science brain fitness program (see two previous quotes)increases the flow of -- norepinephrin. If its flow is inhibited, positive outcomes of surprise that lead to lead to innovation are less likely.

Thanks for your comments.

DBW

[Karyn Froseth]

David,
I truly enjoy your blog and reference it all the time. As someone/a marketer with SO much to learn about brain studies, the influence of right brain, etc. - I have a question: would marketing that better addresses "right brain" hot buttons only resonate w/ 40+ consumers based upon the self-actualization you reference? Or, in your opinion, is the "right brain" dynamic seeping to younger age groups/across society. For example, if your target audience is Teens, or 20-somethings, or 30-somethings -is the right brain info. not really relevant b/c they have not fully matured? OR, is humankind in general moving to right brain patterns? I've JUST begun Daniel Pink's book on this subject, so perhaps there's more there. But wanted your opinion. Thank you. Karyn

[Atare E. Agbamu]

David --

I enjoyed Gene Cohen's article, but I didn't learn anything new because of what I've learned from your work.

--Atare

[Resveratrol]

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