Attractive things work better

Attractive things work better! What? How? I was so shocked when I read this (although it does explain why Apple dominates the market). In the book "Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things" by Don Norman, it briefly explains a study done in Japan by two Japanese scientists, Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura. They created two identical ATM machines, except one had the buttons and screen arranged in an attractive way the other in an unattractive way. The result? The users perceived the attractive machine was easier to use. This study was picked up by an Israeli scientist, Noam Tractinsky, who felt that this was absurd, maybe it would work in a country like Japan who are aesthetically focused, but not in general. He got the layouts used by the Japanese scientists, repeated the study and found not only was he able to repeat the results, but they were stronger in Israel. Result - attractive things work better.