Apple is a very polarizing company. While many of us celebrate almost every decision, others don’t miss the chance to criticize every move. The same thing happens with people. There are a lot of psychology involved in how we value someone and in our perception of it.
In relation to this we find a curious study which, as we are told in Magnet, sheds a little more light on Why is it illegal to hate Steve Jobs? —to put it that way—and this is the Streaking Star effect, a phenomenon directly related to our perception of human potential and how we celebrate the accomplishments of others.
Milestones of one stand out from milestones of many
Perhaps because of some envy, sometimes successful people, millionaires and the like generate some rejection. In parallel, there is the Streaking Star effect which counteracts this feeling. This effect originated from a study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which uses 2625 people to demonstrate that “the success of individuals inspires the admiration of people in a way that the success of a group does not”.
It turns out that in general, when you see how someone reaches certain milestones, you feel that the human potential is expanded, whereas when it’s a team that achieves the same successes, the feeling is different. If we transpose this situation to the business world would explain why Apple can better connect with its users than Samsung.
Steve Jobs came out of practically nowhere and became one of the most powerful men on the planet. He did it decision by decision, presentation by presentation and also hire by hire.. A person who should command admiration, even if someone disagrees with how they achieve it. While Samsung, a family conglomerate and much more diffuse, tells a completely different story.
The same study told participants some facts about AVnet, one of the top 350 companies in the United States. Half learned that a fictional CEO had run the company for more than 20 years and that his decisions had led to the company’s success. The other half were told the truth, that it was a board that made the same decisions. The conclusion was that the first group were more attracted to the brand in various aspects.
As we started by saying, Apple is a very polarizing company. Steve Jobs is also a polarizing person, but what no one can question are his accomplishments. The Streaking Star Effect puts words and a scientific basis on something clear, when someone is crazy enough to believe they can change the world, He succeeds. And it attracts attention.
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