Big Brother prefers Pepsi

This story, sent to me by Frank, is some crazy stuff. File it under “I read it on the Internet” with the appropriate amount of caution, but it discusses the new role that some neuroscientists are playing in determining how advertising affects the human brain.

In it, the author describes a study that found that branding can have just as much affect on how something tastes as …well, as taste does. He describes a version of the familiar “Pepsi Challenge” where subjects are hooked up to brain monitoring equipment, sample unmarked cups of soda, and report which they like better. Usually it’s Pepsi, and researchers can see changes in an area of subjects’ mellon called the ventral putamen. This is a region of the brain known to be associated with feelings of rewards.

However, when researchers told subjects which cups contained which brand of soft drink, almost everyone picked Coke. What’s more, there was increased activity in the brain region controlling higher-level cognitive function.

It could be argued that Coke’s marketing and brand image were affecting how they tasted the soft drink! If not that, then it at least affected which they preferred! That alone isn’t too surprising to people convinced of the power of marketing, but what is huge is that these scientists are measuring it with hard, scientific data. That’s huge!

You should really read the whole article. It goes on to talk about how some scientists are using their expertise to determine the effectiveness of specific marketing and advertising techniques. They can do stuff up to the point of showing you the same product packaged two different ways and measuring which one you prefer, all without your doing anything overt. It’s creepy, in an Orwellian kind of way.

Thinking on this, though, I can see other applications for such technology in the realm of “Industrial/Organizational Neuropsychology”. An important issue in the hiring process is determining person/organization fit between a job applicant and the company. In a nutshell, this deals with the degree to which the applicant and the organization have the same values, preferences, and expectations.

What if you could jam a few electrodes into a job applicant’s head, then describe or show him situations that are typical (or atypical) of those encountered in your organization. You could measure his brain activity when you show a vignette of a group working as a team, versus that of a bunch of individuals working independently. You could describe a job’s travel requirements and see how averse the applicant’s brain is to that information.

The problem of job applicants’ aversion to having needles stuck in their brains aside, how cool would that be? I’ll make millions!