Friday's counter intuitive research - advertising creates more enjoyment

http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2010/08/hbrs-idea-watch-strange-but-tr.html

start at 4.25 on the pod cast for  "Defend your research from Harvard Business Review/ Sept 2010 - interview from Leif Nelson Prof @Berkeley"

Research on people watching TV shows - interrupted with commercials and non-interrupted; expected outcome would be that people enjoy more the one that was not interrupted.

However, pretty strongly people enjoyed the TV with commercials more, good news for advertisers.

Reason and rational is adaptation.  What is this.  Consider a 10 minute massage, the massage gets less enjoyable as time goes on. if you cut the session in half and start again, the enjoyment increases.

Why do people like and pay for premium channels without ads - plots are complex and provide natural interruption by stitching story lines. Designed to keep enjoyed high.

Smart take and counter intuitive research