Fans see Apple as a religion, finds study
20 May 2011
Explaining the fierce loyalty of Apple users, UK neuroscientists have suggested in a recently screened BBC documentary that the brains of Apple devotees are stimulated by Apple imagery in the same way that the brains of religious people are stimulated by religious imagery.
A team of neuroscientists scanned the brain of an Apple fan and it showed that the brand was stimulating the same parts of the brain as religious imagery does in people of faith.
The programme, 'Secrets of the Superbrands', looks at why technology megabrands such as Apple, Facebook and Twitter have become so popular and such a big part of many people's lives.
Footage of the opening of the Cupertino company's Covent Garden store in central London last year showed hordes of Apple devotees lining up outside overnight, while the staff whipped up customers (and themselves) into something of an evangelical frenzy.
This religious-like fervour got presenter Alex Riley thinking, and he decided to take a closer look at the inside of the head of an Apple fanatic.
The neuroscientists ran an MRI scan on the brain of Alex Brooks, the editor of World of Apple, who claims that the 'Jobsian' cult (so-called after Apple founder Steve Jobs) is "definitely" on his mind 24 hours a day. They discovered that photos of things like the iPhone and the iPad make certain parts of his brain all tingly.
