How do people decide who to vote for? According to Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at UCLA, the answer may have less to do with “the issues,” and more to do with brain tissue.
Using magnetic resonance imaging — a brain scan — Dr. Iacoboni and his colleagues at the Brain Mapping Center are now able to predict a person’s party allegiance after showing them photographs of past presidental candidates.
Their work is less political science than a clever way to probe the way our brains are wired. But that doesn’t mean the emerging field of “neuro imaging” has gone unnoticed outside of academia. In recent years, several “neuro-marketing” companies have sprung up to capitalize on this breakthrough technology, heralding its potential uses in the field of advertising and market research.
Could tell-all brain scans really be produced? Wouldn’t consumers mind such intrusions? We look at the science and the ethics surrounding this cutting-edge technology.
- Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (”Volunteers needed!”)
- Neuroethics Imaging Group, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University School of Medicine
- “Neurodating.com — Beyond Match.com,” Brain Waves, Corante.com
- Human Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Brain and Behavior Institute, Baylor College of Medicine
- LONI, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA
- Lieberman Research Worldwide, “Our unique whole-brain problem-solving approach goes beyond data gathering and analysis to identify marketing insights that help our clients build their businesses.”