Baby iMac
For some psychologists and anthropologists, human social instincts are key to Mac loyalty. Just as animal lovers anthropomorphize their pets, Macs users associate human characteristics with their machines.
Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, said the flat-panel iMac, for example, triggers a fostering response because it resembles an infant.
In psych talk, it's neotenous. It has childlike features, like the big-eyed characters in Japanese anime.
"The new iMac has the essential features of a baby that needs nurturing," he explained. "A big head with a frail neck and body. These are all the cues a healthy human infant might give. It says, 'I've got a big brain so I'm worth taking care of, but I've got a little neck so I need nurturing. Don't abandon me for a Dell PC.' It taps into a response the same way a healthy but needy infant does."
Macs are also generally viewed as "warm" and "friendly," and because of this people enter into social relationships with them, Miller said.
"People don't rank their friends objectively or scrutinize their good and bad traits, they simply accept them, faults and all," he said. "Apple isn't judged by performance dimensions because it's a social relationship (users) have with their computer. It's a friendship."
Miller also said Macs are more feminine than Windows PCs. As a result, women feel like their Macs are friends or confidantes. For their part, men aren't threatened by Macs because they're not sexual rivals. They're more of a female helper.
"For men, it feels like a courtship with the computer," Miller said. "They are gentlemanly, protective. The (Windows) PC is a masculine device. Why do I want a sexual rival on my desktop, rather than a feminine servant?"
Miller is the author of The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped Human Nature and is researching the impact of evolutionary psychology on marketing and consumer behavior.
Clinical psychologist Russ Goldstein said Macs are unconsciously perceived as something like an older brother, a little bit nerdy perhaps but also cool, friendly and intuitive. Microsoft, on the other hand, is more paternal: a rigid, cold father figure.
"(Apple) introduced a sense of play to computing," Goldstein said. "Microsoft is demanding, disciplined and also fucked up. It gives the experience of being under the thumb. There's this relationship with the two brands."
Goldstein said an element of "imprinting" may also be present in people's relationships with their Macs.
Discovered by animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz, imprinting happens when newborn animals associate their mother with the first thing they see. Ducklings, for example, imprint on a stuffed fox if that's what they encounter on hatching. Likewise, Goldstein said, computer neophytes imprint on Macs if that's their first machine.
Brigitte Jordan, a corporate anthropologist at the Palo Alto Research Center, said Mac users were devoted to their machines because of their unique design and the "playful, cheerful" interface.