Isn’t it weird how this works? You’re on an overcrowded street in the city, in a sea of people, when you suddenly, unexpectedly, out of the hundreds of faces in your visual field, see the one face of someone you know. Not only do you recognize them immediately, you also have an accompanying emotional response — love, hate, fear, trust, distrust.

What is up with that? Your FFA, that’s what’s all fired up! In your brain there’s this area dedicated to perceiving faces, the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) just outside of the visual cortex and near the amygdala, the emotional center of your brain.

This means that faces grab your attention, are recognized quickly, and just as instantly associate with emotion, bypassing the usual brain-interpreting channels.

How does your brand, the experience you created in this moment, grab your customer’s attention (Awareness) among all the other “faces”? And then trigger the intended emotion (Trust)? How does the face, the soul, of your brand make your customer feel better, safer, more trusting, happier….about you?

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Source: Kanwisher, N., McDermott J., Chun, M. The fusiform face area: Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302–4311.