Attention and Brand Location

DVR Fast-forwarding May Not Be Fatal To TV Advertising

ScienceDaily (2008-11-21) -- With the advent of digital video recorders and products like TiVo, viewers can fast-forward past commercials while playing back their favorite shows. Researchers found that viewers can retain valuable brand information even from an ad glimpsed for a fraction of its actual length. However, they also found that ads with brand information located on the periphery of the TV screen are of virtually no value. ... > read full article

Financial risk behavior shown in men with higher testosterone levels!

ScienceDaily (2008-09-30) -- Two researchers from Harvard jointly led a recent study in which they showed that men with higher testosterone levels invest more money during a risky investment game. The study associates higher testosterone levels with financial risk-taking behavior. LINK

Risk taking gene isolated!

ScienceDaily (2009-02-11) -- A new study provides provocative insights that relate to the question of the day: "How in the world did so many financial titans take such huge risks with out nation's well being?" The new research pinpoints the roles specific variants of the serotonin transporter gene and the dopamine receptor gene play in predicting whether people are more or less likely to take financial risks. LINK

Material versus experiential gifts and happiness!

An experiential gift is better and more memorable than a material gift unless the experiential gift is negative. http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?sid=google&auinit=M&aulast=Schulte-R%C3%BCther&atitle=Gender+differences+in+brain+networks+supporting+empathy&id=doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.04.180

Women's mirror neurons activate when looking at other's emotional faces but men's do not!

A recent paper (Shulte-Ruther et al. 2008) found that women, when evaluating the emotional expressions in faces, showed higher activation in right inferior frontal cortex where mirror neurons are believed to be, while men did not show this activation.

Color Matters

New research in Science shows how color influences cognitive processes.

Dopamine Uptake and Risk Taking

Risk Takers, Drug Abusers Driven By Decreased Ability To Process Dopamine

ScienceDaily (2008-12-30) -- For risk-takers and impulsive people, New Year's resolutions often include being more careful, spending more frugally and cutting back on dangerous behavior, such as drug use. But new research finds that these individuals -- labeled as novelty seekers by psychologists -- face an uphill battle in keeping their New Year's resolutions due to the way their brains process dopamine. ... > read full article

Men Are From Mars -- Neuroscientists Find That Men And Women Respond Differently To Stress

ScienceDaily (2008) -- Functional magnetic resonance imaging of men and women under stress showed neuroscientists how their brains differed in response to stressful situations. In men, increased blood flow to the left orbitofrontal cortex suggested activation of the "fight or flight" response. In women, stress activated the limbic system, which is associated with emotional responses.

Haptic Response: How it Feels Matters

Touch Can Trump Taste, Even When It Comes To Selecting Mineral Water

ScienceDaily (2008-07-14) -- For some consumers, the way a cup of mineral water tastes has more to do with the container than the contents. Especially for consumers who are less likely to enjoy touching items or products before deciding to buy them. ... > read full article

Alcohol Ads and Adolescent Drinking

Advertising, Alcohol And Adolescents

ScienceDaily (2008-06-08) -- The advertising of alcohol, the marketing of alcoholic products, peer pressure and parental influence all play a part in the level of alcohol consumption among young people. Researchers found that advertising seems to be most effective in the case of alcopops and cider. ... > read full article

Death and Consumption

Morbid Thoughts Whet The Appetite

ScienceDaily (2008-06-25) -- Can watching TV news or crime shows trigger overeating? According to new research, people who are thinking about their own deaths want to consume more. ... > read full article

Ventral Striatum Key to Adventure Seeking Behavior

Neuroscientists Discover A Sense Of Adventure

ScienceDaily (2008-06-25) -- Wellcome Trust scientists have identified a key region of the brain which encourages us to be adventurous. The region, located in a primitive area of the brain, is activated when we choose unfamiliar options, suggesting an evolutionary advantage for sampling the unknown. It may also explain why rebranding of familiar products encourages to pick them off the supermarket shelves. ... > read full article

Cessation Ads Work?

Exposure To Smoking-cessation Product Ads Helps Smokers Quit

ScienceDaily (2007-07-25) -- The more magazine ads smokers see for the nicotine patch and other quit-smoking aids, the more likely they are to try to quit smoking and be successful --- even without buying the products, finds a new Cornell study. Researchers calculated that if the smoking-cessation product industry increased its average annual spending on magazine advertising by about $2.6 million or 10 percent, the average smoker would see 2.1 more ads each year; according to their calculations, this would translate to about 80,000 additional quits each year. ... > read full article

Better Decisions with Emotional Intelligence

How about dessert? from PhysOrg.com

People with highly developed emotional sensibilities are better at making product choices, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

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Energy Drinks and Risk

Consumption of energy drinks may be linked to increased risky behavior according Kate Miller from the University of Buffalo in a recent published study. It could be due to increased caffeine or that these drinks are often consumed with alcohol. Article

Neural Response to PSAs 2006

Functional MRI of Brain Response to Anti-Smoking Advertisements
Daniel Langleben, MD

"This is a pilot study for the larger center project titled Evaluating Anti-Tobacco public service announcements (PSAs). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study brain response to anti-smoking PSAs. In preliminary studies, researchers used perfusion fMRI to detect increased activity in the components of the brain limbic system in opiate-dependent patients in response to a ten-minute heroin-related video. The results indicated that (1) Brain response to media can be measured with fMRI; (2) Brain response to media varies across target audiences and (3) Specific structures mediating strong interest could be activated in the target population but not the controls. Collaborators at Penn have also used fMRI to detect differential response to the emotional image content. This pilot study takes an important first step towards exploring the feasibility of using magnetic resonance signal as a marker of cognitive (e.g. attention) and emotional (e.g. arousal) responses to different PSAs. Results from this would allow interpretation of the brain response to a PSA in terms of known brain localization of cognitive functions."

Express Yourself

Why Are Some People Unable To Express Their Emotions?

ScienceDaily (2008-05-27) -- Italian investigators have published a new study on the neurobiologic correlates of the inability to express emotions (alexithymia). A deficit in interhemispheric transfer was hypothesized in alexithymia more than 30 years ago, following the observation that split-brain patients manifest certain alexithymic characteristics. ... > read full article

Research Needed on How Consumer Risk Behavior is Impacted by Pharma DTC!

An FDA panel of experts has concluded that more research needs to be done on ads for prescriptions drugs and their effect on consumer behavior.

According to Kristin Davis, deputy director for the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications 68,000 marketing campaigns including commercials and print ads, magnets and pens, were submitted to the FDA.

A study from the National Institutes of Health found thatin 2005, $29.9 billion was spent on advertising, free samples, and sales staff to promote brand name products. More than $4 billion were spent on DTC ads versus $429 million for ads for doctors.

Read more...

Companies Changing Behavior

Business / Small Business
The Goal Is to Do the Right Thing
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Published: May 21, 2008
Small businesses are trying to provide information to consumers about why their products are considered “green.” Nonetheless, there are few definite rules or standards.

Power Women

Estrogen Fuels Female Need For Power And Control

ScienceDaily (2008-05-23) -- New psychology research suggests that the sex hormone estrogen may be for women what testosterone is for men: The fuel of power. Until recently, some researchers doubted whether women had a biologically anchored need for dominance. ... > read full article