People argue that using neuroscience in the field of marketing is immoral. This field is now being referred to as neuromarketing. There are people out there that feel strongly that using MRI and EEG testing to see what happens in the brain when purchasing consumer goods should not be practiced. I encourage you to view it as a scientific breakthrough versus an unethical practice. Research in this field cannot only open the eyes to the consumer’s irrational mind, but to help us understand human kind. For centuries, philosophers were always searching for a way to define the brain; at first they believed it to be a heating system then the idea changed to a machine. We now have the technology not only to define the brain, but also to go even further and broaden our knowledge.
By learning the anatomy of the brain, we can learn how communication works between left and right hemispheres. This insight can help hospitalized patients that have cognitive-communication disorders. Even though some people see these advantages, they still have an issue with using the methods for marketing purposes. This research can and is educating us to not only to be more aware consumers, but also to better understand why we feel and act in such irrational ways. Martin Lindstrom, who is a marketing professional and one of the first people to combine neuroscience and marketing, puts it like this, “By better understanding our own seemingly irrational behavior—whether it’s why we buy a designer shirt or how we assess a job candidate—we actual gain more control, not less.” His statement means that knowing more about how we act as individuals and why we behave the way we do helps us better make decisions for the future. These decisions could be in everyday life as to why we might choose to exercise or stay in to watch a movie. Every step in this field is one more towards bringing about that scientific breakthrough where we may fully understand the inner workings of how our brain makes decisions.
