Explaining Human Decision Making: From Neuroimaging to Neuromarketing

Wintersemester 2006/2007
Bühler-Kolloquium der FR Psychologie
Organisation:
Professur Ingenieurpsychologie und Kognitive Ergonomie
Prof. Dr. Boris M. Velichkovsky
Explaining Human Decision Making: From Neuroimaging to
Neuromarketing
Dr. Vasily Klucharev
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University &
the F.C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, The Netherlands
Neuromarketing is a new interdisciplinary field combining methods of psychology, neuroscience and
marketing in order to create a neurobiological model of economic decision making and persuasion.
G.R. Miller defined persuasive communication as any message that is intended to shape, reinforce, or
change the responses of others (Miller 1980). The vast diversity and popularity of advertising makes it
an excellent vehicle by which persuasive communication can be studied (McClure, Li et al. 2004).
One of the most powerful techniques of persuasion is that of high expertise or authority often referred
to as "expert power". The persuasive effect of experts is based on the idea that people will trust the
opinions of someone who is assumed to have a lot of relevant knowledge (French and Raven 1960).
We found that a single exposure to a combination of an expert communicator and an object leads to a
long-lasting change in attitudes towards the object. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), we report that experts modulate the activity in a set of brain regions involved in memory
encoding and trustful behavior that in turn dramatically modulate human economic behavior. Our
results suggest that modulation of caudate activity is involved in triggering the persuasive behavioral
effect of experts. Recently, the role of the caudate in processing social information e.g. perceived
fairness of social partners was demonstrated (Delgado, Locke et al. 2003; King-Casas, Tomlin et al.
2005). It has been shown that caudate activity correlates with “intention to trust” on the next play of a
trust game and with player reputation development (King-Casas, Tomlin et al. 2005). Thus, our results
demonstrate that experts effectively modulate activity in neural structures (i.e., caudate nucleus)
involved in trustful behavior and risk evaluation. We suggest that the persuasive effect of experts is
mediated by the modulation of caudate activity resulting in a re-evaluation of the product in terms of
its perceived value, related attitudes or risk-reward tradeoffs. By and large, these results enable to
make the first steps toward a neuroscientific model of persuasive communication.
References:
Delgado, M.R., H.M. Locke, et al. (2003). "Dorsal striatum responses to reward and punishment: effects of valence and magnitude
manipulations." Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 3(1): 27-38.
French, J.P.R.J. and B. Raven (1960). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright and A. Zander (Eds), Group dynamics.. New York,
Harper and Row: 607-623.
King-Casas, B., D. Tomlin, et al. (2005). "Getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange." Science
308(5718): 78-83.
McClure, S.M., J. Li, et al. (2004). "Neural correlates of behavioral preference for culturally familiar drinks." Neuron 44(2): 379-87.
Miller, G.R. (1980). On being persuaded: Some basic distinctions. In M.E. Roloff and G.R. Miller (Eds.), Persuasion: New directions in
theory and research.. Beverly Hills, Sage: 11-27.
Mittwoch, 25. Oktober 2006, 17:00 Uhr,
BZW Zellescher Weg 17, 2E1-3
Alle Studenten, Mitarbeiter, Professoren und Interessierte sind herzlich eingeladen!