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Advancing consumer neuroscience

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Abstract

In the first decade of consumer neuroscience, strong progress has been made in understanding how neuroscience can inform consumer decision making. Here, we sketch the development of this discipline and compare it to that of the adjacent field of neuroeconomics. We describe three new frontiers for ongoing progress at both theoretical and applied levels. First, the field will broaden its boundaries to include genetics and molecular neuroscience, each of which will provide important new insights into individual differences in decision making. Second, recent advances in computational methods will improve the accuracy and out-of-sample generalizability of predicting decisions from brain activity. Third, sophisticated meta-analyses will help consumer neuroscientists to synthesize the growing body of knowledge, providing evidence for consistency and specificity of brain activations and their reliability as measurements of consumer behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Ale Smidts & Maarten A. S. Boksem

  2. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Ming Hsu

  3. Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Alan G. Sanfey & Mirre Stallen

  4. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Richard B. Ebstein

  5. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Scott A. Huettel

  6. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Joe W. Kable

  7. Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA

    Uma R. Karmarkar

  8. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Shinobu Kitayama & Israel Liberzon

  9. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Brian Knutson

  10. Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, VA, USA

    Terry Lohrenz

  11. Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Carolyn Yoon

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  1. Ale Smidts
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  2. Ming Hsu
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  3. Alan G. Sanfey
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  4. Maarten A. S. Boksem
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  6. Scott A. Huettel
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  7. Joe W. Kable
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  8. Uma R. Karmarkar
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  9. Shinobu Kitayama
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  11. Israel Liberzon
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  12. Terry Lohrenz
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  13. Mirre Stallen
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  14. Carolyn Yoon
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ale Smidts or Ming Hsu.

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Smidts, A., Hsu, M., Sanfey, A.G. et al. Advancing consumer neuroscience. Mark Lett 25, 257–267 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9306-1

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