Do you know the story about the monkey and the icecream?

Have you ever learned a new skill by watching things on YouTube? A crazy dance, a knitting pattern, how to build something or another completely new skill?
Most people take it for granted, but one of our important human abilities is the ability to learn simply by watching others perform an action. That ability is attributed to your mirror neurons.

It is said that mirror neurons were discovered at the University of Parma, where they were conducting studies on which centers in the brain are activated by movement.
A monkey eating peanuts was examined while its brain was monitored to follow its movements and accompanying brain activity.
The story goes that it was a very hot day and one of the researchers wandered into the room with an ice cream in his hand. As he took the ice cream to his mouth, the monkey’s brain lit up like a Christmas tree, as if it were itself raising its arm and eating the delicious ice
cream. But the monkey really just sat still and followed the deliciously looking icecream with his eyes.
-And bam! Mirror neurons were discovered.

Mirror neurons are neurons in the brain that are activated when we see, hear, or read about something someone does. This means that when they are activated due to the observation, the brain behaves as if we were ourselves doing it.
For example, if we see someone smiling, the same centers in our brains will be activated even without changing our own facial expressions.
We simply mirror the behavior and feelings of others. Hence the name.

It doesn’t even have to be real people we see. Just think of the scene in The Lion King where Simba looses his father.
It was your mirror neurons that gave you tears in your eyes and a lump in your throat. In fact, mirror neurons are the basis of our empathy. Without them, we would not be able to understand the intentions, actions or feelings of others.

Maybe we wouldn’t even exist at all without mirror neurons. The entire human development of learning to make fire, hunt or gather food is based on our ability to copy and learn from the actions of others.

In fact, mirror neurons are so effective that a well-told narrative of an action, for example, made in a cartoon or a small movie, will be better than a detailed description of an action at any time. This is because the mirror neurons make us feel like we’ve already actually performed the action once before.

This is also why storytelling is so powerful. Our mirror neurons simply make us experience the story ourselves.
A well-told story told in active language supported by gesticulation can capture people’s interest in a way that is far more impactful than if you were simply stating the facts.

How do you use your knowledge of mirror neurons in your work with Information security?
Knowledge about mirror neurons is frequently used in, for example, marketing strategies. The way mirror neurons make users’ brains believe that they have already performed the action once is exploited for numerous purposes. This is why when you shop online you often see is a video with a mouse cursor that clicks “buy” or a fictious finger pressing “subscribe” when your youtube video is
about to end. Your subconscious brain will perceive it as something you do yourself.
In another blogpost I’ll tell you more about our “consistency bias”. But for now, it’s enough that you know that our brains love repetition and performing the same action over and over again. Therefore, the fact that your brain already thinks that you have performed the action before is incredibly powerful in terms of getting you to press the “buy button” or to like a post.

Maybe you could do something similar in your awareness communication? A small video with a mouse cursor clicking on “report phishing”, or you can tell a little story about someone who fended off a ransomware attack by contacting IT security when she accidentally clicked on a suspicious link?

Remember that a well-told story told in active language supported by gesticulation can capture people’s interest in a way that is far more impactful than simply stating the facts. Perhaps it could make sense to turn a dead-boring checklist into a story or small film? Or maybe you could choose to use storytelling when introducing a new security procedure?

Personally I have very good experience with making small videos that convey the most important messages in the information security policy and the Code of Conduct explaining in tiny little videos supported by an curser actually moving within the document.

If you choose to use videos in your communication (which I highly recommend), then do remember that facial expressions work really strongly on our mirror neurons and they are not easy to fool.
First of all, think about whether the person in your video is sincere. Our mirror neurons will in a split second be able to determine whether the person is sincere. They can easily detect that action and facial expressions do not match and then the message appears untrustworthy.

At the same time, remember that they have their name for a reason.
If the characters in your story or video are negative in their body language or mimicry, it will be reflected in the users’ subconscious. This means that it will be the feeling they get about your message and maybe even your future communications.

When it come to risk perception mirror neurons are also great to take into considerations.
I have several times sat down with a team conducting a risk assessment where participants leaned back arms across saying “this doesn’t happen to us! (Du to overconfidence and optimism bias, again a later blogpost)
What would have happened if the risk scenario was told in a story explaining how this had happened to an organization like yours? Or a story about a persona like the ones in your room being in an emergency response situation mitigating a similar situation?

Storytelling can be used in multiple disciplines within information security I bet you can come up with some yourself now?

Here are some examples to get you going:

• Think about the wording of your messages.
  Be positive in your language and tone of voice as your message will be received in that sentiment
  
• “Paint pictures with your language” when you describe a proces as your users will feel like they have already done it once and will persist
  
• Use lots of videos and stories in your communication
  
• Be sincere when meeting your target audiences in person