The value of novelty

Driving through a heavy rainstorm late one night, I had the chance to listen to a wonderful interview with Jerome Kagan on CBC's Ideas. (Unfortunately it is not available on a podcast.)

Kagan, you may know, is one of the great minds in developmental psychology. He has studied the nature vs nurture thing for decades. Kagan, and others, have clearly shown that some human temperaments are inborn. One of these is how much we enjoy new stimuli. About 40% of people enjoy new stimuli a lot. About 20% really dislike change and novelty except on a carefully managed basis. These tendencies are managed better as we grow up -- we don't go all stiff in our cribs and cry. But the tendency is still there.

For all humans, Kagan says, "we enjoy novelty that we understand." Well worth contemplating when thinking about customer experience, communications, and most anything else that involves human beings.

For example, we enjoy a new shampoo, a new fragrance, a new spice mix. We may not enjoy a new job quite so much. A new world order, that's seriously stressing.

We enjoy novelty that we understand. Words of wisdom.