Neurological Correlates

Superbowl ad brain scan

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Should consumer behavior research consider human biological  and evolutionary roots?
Yes, according to Prof. Saad, who is now likely to be banished from the Faculty Lounge in the business building to the one in the biology building for potentially forcing scores of marketing majors to wake up for those 7:45 evolutionary biology labs. Prof. Saad’s recent [...]

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When you have money, life is good. When you want money, life could be better. Here’s the abstract from Vohs et al (HT Neuroscientifically Challenged who has a great analysis of the whole paper):
ABSTRACT—Money plays a significant role in people’s lives, and yet little experimental attention has been given to the psychological underpinnings of [...]

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I lurve experiments where oxytocin is squirted up people’s noses. Oxytocin-up-the-nose affects your ability to recognize people you’ve seen before — and, according to two new reports, this effect is most pronounced if you see them displaying the same emotion that you first saw them displaying. Happy memories are the strongest. So, don’t be [...]

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In the Western world, we love to anthropomorphize our dogs. There was a New Yorker cartoon, at the dawn of the internet age, where a dog was clicking away at a keyboard, remarking to another little dog, “

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“Dopamine Futures” original art by Swivelchair
(all rights, if any totally waived, copy it all you want).
If you compare a screen shot of on-line gambling with a screen shot of on-line stock trading, they look very similar. That is probably because humans are hard wired for rewards — if you hunt and are successful, [...]

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Neuromarketing Blog is a blog (affiliated with NeuroscienceMarketing.com) that I try to catch once or twice a week. Professional, polished and clear, its a quick way to scan the neuromarketing up-to-the-minute news.
I’m in the biopharma business, and sometimes deal with marketing or sales folks — so strictly speaking, marketing is not my line [...]

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There are lots of studies as to why people purchase luxury goods, but these are mostly directed at individuals in isolation. What about group behavior?

Manhattan, Harlem, Lenox Ave.
Ray Fisman, an economist, has an interesting article in Slate about why African-Americans (and other ethnic minorities) in the US spend disproportionately on status-seeking items. As quoted in [...]

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This is off topic, but not really.
Here’s what I just read, a post from Silicon Alley’s Michael Learmonth, interviewing a person knowledgeable about internet advert buyers. Here’s the news: there’s not as much pent-up demand, big buyers are sidelined (like Countrywide), likely slower growth, what with the economy, and don’t be looking for [...]

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Little American Brown Weasel
The Top Two Inches has an interesting blog post about dating, called, “Dating — Don’t Do It“. Interesting read, and it got me thinking about trust.
Trust is first built in one part of the brain, and then your brain comes to a fork in the road: the “unconditional” trust brain area [...]

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