Walter Cannon's fight-or-flight response shapes how customers perceive your business. Most companies fail the test by not reassuring buyers or reducing perceived threat. Win by showing your uniqueness through actions, not claims, so their subconscious feels safe choosing you.
Chapters
Coined by Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon, the fight or flight response is an intuitive safeguard built into the primitive area of our brains. Its original purpose was to help prevent early Homo sapiens from killing themselves off, making the species extinct before they had a chance to build pyramids, circumnavigate the globe, or design iPhones. When invoked, the fight or flight response activates the sympathetic nervous system and puts us on red alert. It makes us perceive almost everything as a potential threat. Most businesses aren't very good at creating buying experiences that pass the fight or flight test, about presenting everything a customer sees in ways that underline reassurance, helping buyers understand at a deep, almost subconscious level how you're unique amongst your competitors and that you're their best choice. Not because that's what you say, but because that's how you behave.