Altruism in humans is difficult to explain with traditional models of behavior, which have focused on competition between individuals for mates, scarce resources, etc. It's undeniable, though, that being willing to help unrelated…

I've often said that the most exciting application of neuromarketing techniques isn't that of choosing or developing advertisements, but rather designing better products. While some may feel that enhancing ad effectiveness with brain scans…

Advertising Age's Mya Frazier has taken neuromarketing to task in Hidden Persuasion or Junk Science? Despite the alarming title, the article itself is reasonably balanced in content if not in tone. Frazier highlights some of the same…

We recently covered new research that showed an interesting inversion of feelings about decisions in our post, Simple Marketing for Complex Products. Simply put, individuals were happier with decisions about complex issues that were made…

My fellow FutureLab blogger, David Widger, wrote an interesting post, How Many Green Marketers Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb? In it he notes that fluorescent bulbs have proven difficult to market, despite today's lower bulb prices…

Retail price tags are disappearing, as documented by MSNBC's Bob Sullivan in Whatever Happened to Price Tags?. Stores are abandoning the traditional stamps and stickers affixed to the items and using shelf labels instead. Checkout…

Stephanie West Allen, who writes the Idealawg blog (there are at least a couple of puns in that clever title), forwarded a link to an interesting article, The Neuroscience of Leadership. The article, authored by David Rock and Dr. Jeffrey…

What's the difference between (1) investing in the common stock of a public company or (2) buying an expensive perfume or men's fragrance? The answer seems simple... a financial investment is a decision based on a cold, rational analysis of…

"Priming" is a concept discussed in Malcom Gladwell's book, Blink. Research shows that subtle cues can subconsciously affect subsequent behavior. Marketers should understand this concept in designing campaigns.