April 24, 2006--Neuro Persuaders

Some years ago Vance Packard published The Hidden Persuaders, a book that among other things sounded the alarm about how advertisers were flashing pictures of Coke and popcorn on movie screens at such nano-speed that the images would bypass consciousness but register on the brain so effectively that moviegoers would get up from their seats as if they were zombies, be drawn toward the candy counter, and the next thing they knew they would be headed back to their seats with trays loaded with10,000 calories of goodies.

That was then. Now we have the brave new world of neuro-economics, a quasi-science in which experimenters measure brain activity while subjects make investment decisions and buy things. (See NY Times article linked below.)

Brain researchers are finding that neurons behave in certain ways when people are in “a positive arousal state,” and when in that state they are more prone to take risks, including when investing or gambling; and when other regions of the brain are stimulated folks are more anxious and thus cautious about things such as the cost of a car or house.

Though this field of neurology was initially dominated by pure researchers, as the implications for applied economics became apparent, others moved in who were interested in the potential use of this new knowledge to influence investing and spending practices. With the insight that people are, to quote the Times, “not consistent or fully rational decision makers,” there is the potential to train investors to wait until brain scans reveal that they are objective rather than emotional before making purchasing decisions.

Since scanning brains is an elaborate and expensive thing to do, it is hard to imagine carrying it out on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. So it is hopeful that there is evidence indicating that minds can be read by employing simpler and less costly techniques—for example, by monitoring eye movements in order to detect anxiety and fear, clearly not the best time to induce people to spend money.

There is of course speculation that these discoveries also have the potential to be used for political purposes. How might we be influenced to vote by various forms of neural activity? What stimulates the desire for change? And when that part of the brain that produces fear is firing, how are we likely to vote? Is any of this starting to sound familiar to you?