I didn’t know this until yesterday, but February 22 was Steve Irwin’s birthday.
As you may know, Steve was “The Crocodile Hunter,” who went on TV to face all kinds of exotic and dangerous animals, for all the world to see.
His daredevil lifestyle eventually caught up with him, and he died in 2006 after being stung in the heart by a stingray.
Anyways, I never watched The Crocodile Hunter on TV, and I never knew when Steve Irwin’s birthday is.
But I sure found out yesterday, thanks to an inflammatory tweet by the animal rights group PETA:
“Steve Irwin’s actions were not on target with his supposed message of protecting wildlife. A real wildlife expert & someone who respects animals for the individuals they are and leaves them to their own business in their natural homes.”
Now, this PETA tweet started quite a firestorm.
Thousands of people felt they needed to come out and make their voices heard on this matter.
The gist of most responses was, Steve Irwin was a beloved guy who did tons of good and loved animals and helped educate people.
All of which might be true – though a quick romp through Wikipedia shows that while Irwin was alive, he also faced similar accusations of disturbing wildlife.
But I’m neither here to shit on the memory of Steve Irwin, nor to write a hagiography of the guy.
I simply want to point out how many people felt the need to come to his defense.
The question is why.
Probably lots of different reasons.
But at least one good explanation is something known as the “halo effect.”
That’s a well-studied human cognitive bias — or you can call it a heuristic.
In effect, the halo effect is the reason why well-behaved students get graded more favorably… why good-looking people tend to get paid more for the same job… and why dead TV personalities get made into saints.
In short, our brains take one thing we know well (“I loved watching Steve Irwin’s show as a kid”) and we transfer that to a whole bunch of stuff we don’t know (“Steve Irwin did more for the protection and conservation of animals than PETA ever will, you sick cunts”).
This halo effect seems to be an almost unavoidable part of human nature.
Which is why it makes sense to keep it in mind when you’re planning out your marketing campaigns, or when you’re positioning new products on the market. In the words of Steve Irwin himself:
“Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.”
Quite cynical, Steve. But true. And with that, let me get to the pitch:
If you want ideas on how to write emails that your make your prospects feel like you are a friend first before you go for the jugular, you might like my upcoming book.
You can find out more about it and even sign up for a free copy (when it comes out) by going to the following page: