Science Shows That Fun Equals Enhanced Relationships

The PBS Series This Emotional Life, airing this week, offers an interesting array of scientific experiments and real life situations that shed light on the nature of human interaction.

This is great food for thought for marketers.

I was especially struck by Dr. Art Aron’s demonstration with married couples. He tied one arm and one leg each to the other’s and then had them attempt to navigate an object through a simple obstacle course together. The game was rigged so that each time a couple finished, they did so before time ran out. The purpose of the exercise was not to test their physical ability to work together. Rather, it was to gauge the couple’s feelings towards each other before and then after successfully completing a frivolous activity together. Results showed that “participation in such novel and fun activities can enhance relationship quality.”

When folks are in a fun, relaxed situation where they are interacting with their peer group in a positive way, this provides companies with an unparalleled opportunity to enhance the quality of their relationships with current and potential new customers.

This is exactly what event marketers have understood for years but are often confounded when trying to convince the bean counters because the metrics are not so cut and dried. So bean counters, check your local PBS listings!