Articles about 'Political Neuromarketing'
Fri 11 Jul 2008
Emory University has announced the establishment of a new Center for Neuropolicy. The focus of the entity will be on the intersection of brain science, individual decision making, and politics.
A new Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University will focus on how the biology of the brain influences decision-making in politics, policy and business. As a partnership among researchers in the Emory School of Medicine, Emory College and the Goizueta Business School, the center will create an ideal environment to accelerate discovery in this emerging field…
The Center is the vision of Gregory S. Berns, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Berns specializes in the use of brain imaging technologies to understand human motivation and decision-making, with a special interest in neuroeconomics and social neuroscience. He will lead the Center as the Emory Distinguished Chair of Neuroeconomics.
According to Berns, “Collective decision-making is political, but politics are biological.” While neuromarketing issues aren’t the focus of the Center for Neuropolicy, I have to believe that published research generated by the unit will yield valuable insights into both political marketing and neuromarketing in general. Full press release is here.
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Wed 25 Jun 2008
Posted by Roger Dooley under
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A few weeks ago, Barack Obama’s campaign announced a new website, Fight the Smears, ostensibly to provide quick facts when negative rumors or allegations about Obama crop up. Many believe that a factor in John Kerry’s loss to George W. Bush was that he failed to counter negative “swift boat” allegations about his combat record quickly enough. I’ll leave the question of whether Fight the Smears is neutral and factual as opposed to partisan spin to the political pundits. Rather, I’d like to focus on the neuromarketing aspects of this effort: could Fight the Smears end up promoting the very allegations it is trying to quash? (more…)
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Thu 20 Mar 2008
Did you ever wonder why some people have such insight into the behavior and feelings of others? Certainly, some of the great advertising execs, copywriters, and other pros seem to have it, particularly for certain groups or markets. But are these insights always accurate? It could be these individuals are projecting their own values and feelings onto other people to produce this apparent window into their emotions. Researchers have found that if you know a little about someone, and find that person similar to yourself in some way, your brain behaves very differently if you are asked about the emotional responses of that person: (more…)
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Fri 14 Mar 2008
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Last week I did an interview with Robin Young of Here & Now, a radio show distributed by Public Radio International and aired on about 50 U.S. stations. The topic was the use of neuromarketing to evaluate political ads, and also featured Dr. Stephen Sands of Sands Research discussing the firm’s EEG analysis of TV commercials for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. The neuromarketing segment of the show is now available for download at the links below. (more…)
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Fri 14 Mar 2008
Are the non-medical applications of fMRI and other brain imaging technology overrated, or are we seeing the birth of a major new field of study? Ofri Ilani and Yotam Feldman of Haaretz have written a lengthy survey piece that starts by describing some of the current and planned brain imaging centers in Israel and segues into a lengthy and detailed discussion of the pros and cons of neuroimaging technology. There is even a section on neuromarketing: (more…)
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Wed 27 Feb 2008
Posted by Roger Dooley under
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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is saddled with an unfortunate middle name, “Hussein.” Not only is it the name of one of the most brutal and belligerent dictators in the last century, it also has connotations that might suggest images of Islamic fanatics to a small subset of voters. When conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham used Obama’s middle name repeatedly in a warmup speech for Republican candidate John McCain, he was immediately criticized. McCain ended up apologizing for Cunningham’s remarks. All that was lacking was a statement like, “I will not make an issue of my opponent’s middle name!” Perhaps McCain shouldn’t rush to judgment on this - at least one study has shown that names DO seem to make a difference in behavior and outcomes. (more…)
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Wed 6 Feb 2008
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Just in time for analyzing Super Tuesday primary results, political neuromarketing is back in the news. CNN ran a story, Reading Voters’ Minds!, on how Lucid Systems is attempting to measure real voter attitudes with various techniques borrowed from neuroscience and medicine. (You can tell CNN was excited by the story because of the exclamation point in the title.) Unfortunately, the information presented in the CNN story looks like another case of overhyped neuromarketing data: a tiny sample size and subjective conclusions.
With a title that satirizes CNN’s breathless headline writing, Slate’s Daniel Engber points out some of the study’s limitations in Obama Builds Lead Inside Voters’ Brains! Neuropundits weigh in on Super Tuesday:
(more…)
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Wed 23 Jan 2008
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Keith Winter was named CEO at Emsense, a neuromarketing company that uses EEG and other technology to measure consumer response to media and ads. Winter had previously held the COO slot at Exponential Interactive, an Internet advertising company. Web marketers might recognize Exponential’s previous name, Tribal Fusion, a bit more readily. Previously, Winter held C-level positions at Marketron International, Inc. and Electronic Arts Seattle.
Emsense is targeting the advertising, video gaming, and political markets for its services. Subject responses are measured using a lightweight headset that records EEG activity. The headset also includes sensors that Emsense says measure breathing, blinking, physical motion, heart activity, and even blushing.
Presumably, Winter’s EA experience will dovetail with Emsense’s efforts to penetrate the video game industry. In addition, his Web advertising experience could improve the company’s focus on that area. Web advertising seems to have been largely overlooked by most neuromarketers. To a degree, this is understandable - a single Super Bowl ad costs $3 million this year, which dwarfs entire Web marketing campaigns. Nevertheless, the Web is the fastest growing ad segment, and is certainly deserving of some neuromarketing attention. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Tim Koogle, former chairman and founding CEO of Yahoo! Inc., is an EmSense angel investor and board member.
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Wed 9 Jan 2008
Neuromarketers may be their own worst enemies. Neuromarketing, and its slightly more established sibling, neuroeconomics, are exciting areas in which new research findings pop up every week. Unfortunately, the rush to commercialize the technology seems to lead to an overabundance of hype and claims that are difficult to back up. A good example is the recent New York Times Op-Ed piece This Is Your Brain on Politics which we chronicled in Political Neuromarketing. (more…)
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Thu 20 Dec 2007
Posted by Roger Dooley under
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A consistent theme here at Neuromarketing is that asking people about their future actions can be a very unreliable predictor of that behavior. Nobody knows this better than political pollsters, who are often surprised by actual voting results that conflict with polls taken just before Election Day, and sometimes even with polls taken after voters have cast their ballots. This is sometimes attributed to a reluctance to reveal one’s true preference or the desire to appear “politically correct” to the pollster; exit poll failures are almost certainly due to this problem. In other cases, voters may actually believe they will vote for a candidate, only to choose another in the voting booth. That may be due to an unacknowledged bias on the part of voters. Black candidates, for example, often fare better in polls than in election results. Now, scientists are attempting to bypass what poll subjects say and look inside their minds - and there’s a way that YOU can check your own hidden biases: (more…)
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