In one of the first really valuable investigations, done in neuroeconomics, to examine real consumer behavior, Knutson, Loewenstein and others observe and analyze, using brain images, people who are in a specific shopping moment. Some even argue that it is the most important study published to date (August 2007) on neuroeconomics applied to consumption.
What is the study itself?
Twenty-six adults participated in it, each with US $ 20 to spend on certain products, which would then be sent to their home in case of purchase. And if they chose not to make any purchases, they could keep the money. The products and their prices were displayed on a computer screen that participants could see while their brains were scanned.
The researchers found that, when the participants were observing the attributes of each product, a subcortal brain region called the nucleus acumbus was activated - this region is associated with the anticipation of pleasure or something pleasant, which is liked. However, when people became aware of the excessive prices of certain products, two additional things happened: the brain region known as the insula was activated and the prefrontal middle cortex was deactivated. Remember that the insula is a brain area that is activated in situations that the person sees as unfair or unpleasant; while the prefrontal cortex is related to the balance of earnings vs. losses.
Conclusions
By studying which brain regions were activated, the authors were able to successfully predict whether or not participants would decide to buy. Activations of the regions associated with the preference for the product and with the weighting of gains and losses indicated that a person would decide to buy a product. On the contrary, when the region associated with excessive prices was activated, participants would choose not to buy that product.
A significant aspect of the study is that the brain scan predicts consumer behavior almost as well as consumer intentions ex ante experiment (could be associated with a market study), showing that neuro market studies can be perfect substitutes of the usual market studies, and although although more expensive, surely less biased.
