Our Popcorn brain

Have you ever wondered how popcorn has become unarguably the best companion to munch around while watching your favorite movie in a movie theatre or even when you decide to binge watch friends over the weekend. Popcorn has taken a irreplacable place in our lives.

I’ve never been a fan of popcorn myself, however I cant remember me not taking a dig into the bucket when someone with me has one. I went for a movie recently when I took a moment to observe the excitement in the eyes of people who bought the tub of popcorn. People from India, would be familiar about a cineplex known as SATHYAM. It’s more than just a movie theatre for many, they even call it an emotion. What comes in my mind if I think about sathyam cinemas? It’s not the movies in first place, its a long que of people waiting to add those flavors and that glow afterwards makes it priceless

How, of all snacks on earth, did popcorn become the mainstay of movie theaters? We’ll have refer back to the history of cinema.!

See, popcorn has been around for ages, and it was a popular snack at 19th century fairs and carnivals, especially after the invention of the first steam-powered popcorn-popper back in 1885. People loved the crunchy, salty, inexpensive snack. And movie theaters hated it. During the era of silent film, these companies followed many of the same rules as traditional and they did not want to be associated with loud food as that could distract from this show. Additionally, there was a little bit of a class consideration here. Since audiences had to read the dialogue on screen, they had to be literate. This means a better sort of people, with superior education. Allowing popcorn inside, was in the opinion of these theater owners, kind of like throwing sawed us on the floor and saying “Yea, sure, spit wherever.”

Talkies, or films with spoken dialogue, emerged in 1927, and this brought movie theaters to the common folks. Suddenly anyone could cough up some change, grab a seat and understand what was going on. This was also the time of the Great Depression, when Americans from coast the coast pined for cheap, escapist entertainment. So the average Americans finally found the cinema, and they brought their snack cultural long. And let’s remember the Depression affected the theaters, as well theaters with the best chances of surviving with the ones that gave customers what they wanted.

At first, independent vendors sold popcorn outside the theater, profiting from the casual passerby by as well as from and future a movie patrons. Since corn kernels were dirt cheap, popcorn became given more popular. People got used to the snack , they started liking it, they loved it.

Contrary to the popular belief, your local movie theater doesn’t actually make much bank off the films it screens. Instead, theaters use concessions this and business. According to the Stanford Business School, concessions comprise about 20% of the theaters gross revenue but 40% of its profit.

The science behind popcorn craving

Theater concessions create a loop of consumption in audiences. It goes like this:

Salt — →Drink — →Salt — →Drink

Popcorn is heavily salted, to make you crave the drinks, and then you get the free refills that supply more salt, causing you to need more to drink, etc. Setting that loop in motion and feeding it is important for concessions, to get repeat business from you.

Besides the popcorn, drinks likewise tend to have a massive markup as well. So the two together is a winning combination for theaters.This is why they offer those upgrades — for just a quarter more, you get an even more gigantic popcorn or mega-sized soda, and the biggest option comes with what? Free refills. Pay that extra quarter or two and you get bigger sizes and more for free. So they push everyone to pay that extra little bit for the bigger size, knowing that in fact due to the massive size of those tubs, you’re unlikely to really come back for a refill for yourself, but might come back for a refill for your kids or other people to eat the free popcorn, and thus you’re more likely to buy additional drinks or to be asked to pick up some candy this time etc

Since we read about popcorn, there’s a scientific entity to explain our addiction to screens and technology too. That’s what neuroscientists call

| The popcorn brain |

The constant stimulation from electronics makes our brain accustom to “popping”, fast-paced stream of information that we find on the internet.This is why we are becoming increasingly less adept to handle the slower pace of real life. This condition is known as “popcorn brain”. It works by providing a constant stimulation that activates dopamine cells in the nucleus accumbens, responsible for the main pleasure center of the brain.Over time, our brain adapts to the continuous new lifestyle. A qualitative scientific research in China, published in June in the PLoS ONE online journal, has given insights that too much time spent online can actually physically change the brain, reducing the gray matter and therefore limiting the thinking part of the brain.As always, the solutions to avoid this are quite simple and obvious. There should be a better online-offline balance, self imposition of limits for the internet use, and challenge the brain to avoid these negative effects. In fact, since time online is an addiction, the best use for that time is a good brain training program!

Hope you enjoyed the article, and got an idea behind why we can’t resist popcorns and why we love it.

Gracias