Abstract
This chapter draws centrally from Heidegger’s work to develop a form of inquiry that reveals how neuromarketing discourse represents consumers along a continuum ranging from non-thinking objects and animals to world-forming entities who can be nudged to take consumptive action. The purpose of the chapter is to illustrate how human beings [as Dasein] make meaning in and from the world, and to foreground the complexity of the process of understanding not necessarily captured by certain neuromarketing practitioners. It argues that using structures of understanding as part of a framework for analysis can reveal the ways in which the discourse of neuromarketing frames consumer thinking in—at times—reductive metaphors. Furthermore, these representations have social and ethical implications in terms of the objectification and instrumentalisation of individuals as tools to be used for advertising ends.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1992). What Computers Still Can’t Do. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- 2.
Wolfe, C. (2013). Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; Calarco, M. (2008). Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007). On the coloniality of being. Contributions to the development of a concept. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 240–270; Sikka, S. (2003). Heidegger and race. In Robert Bernasconi (Ed.), Race and Racism in Continental Philosophy, pp. 74–97. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press; Aho, K. (2009). Heidegger’s Neglect of the Body. Albany, NY: State University Press of New York.
- 3.
Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and Time. (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
- 4.
Blattner, W. (2011, September 2). Some terminology in Being and Time. Heideggeriana. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/TvOLA8
- 5.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1995). Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- 6.
Carman, T. (2003). Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse and Authenticity in Being and Time. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, (p. 205).
- 7.
Heidegger, M. (1995). The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude. (W. McNeill & N. Walker, Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
- 8.
Ibid, (p. 205).
- 9.
Angus, I. (2000). Primal Scenes of Communication: Communication, Consumerism, and Social Movements. Albany, NY: State University of New York, (p. 53).
- 10.
Ibid, (p. 44).
- 11.
Carman, T. (2003). Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse and Authenticity in Being and Time. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, (p. xx).
- 12.
Dreyfus, H. L. & Wrathall, M. A. (2005). Martin Heidegger: An introduction to his thought, work, and life. In H. L. Dreyfus & M. A. Wrathall (Eds.). A Companion to Heidegger (pp. 1–15). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, (p. 5).
- 13.
Carman, T. (2003). Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse and Authenticity in Being and Time. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, (p. 5).
- 14.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1995). Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, (pp. 88–89).
- 15.
Carman, T. (2003). Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse and Authenticity in Being and Time. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- 16.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1995). Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, (pp. 49, 62, 123).
- 17.
Melillo, W. (2006). Inside the consumer mind. Adweek, 47(3), 12–15.
- 18.
MacKlem, K. (2005). It’s mind over money. Maclean’s, 118(21), 66–67.
- 19.
Villiger, M. (2005, March 1). The brain: Marketing to your mind. PBS: Hidden Motives. Retrieved from http://to.pbs.org/1pfOJEL
- 20.
Lindstrom, M. (2010). Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. New York, NY: Broadway Books, (p. 11).
- 21.
Heidegger, M. (1977). A Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. (W. Lovitt, Trans). New York, NY: Harper & Row, (p. 33).
- 22.
Rouvroy, A. (2013). The end(s) of critique: data behaviourism versus due process. In M. Hildebrandt & K. de Vries (Eds.) Privacy, Due Process and the Computational Turn (pp. 143–167). New York, NY: Routledge, (p. 146).
- 23.
Neuromarketing Labs. (2014). Why Do We Use Brain Scans? Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1nnxqCh
- 24.
Rouvroy, A. (2013). The end(s) of critique: data behaviourism versus due process. In M. Hildebrandt & K. de Vries (Eds.) Privacy, Due Process and the Computational Turn (pp. 143–167). New York, NY: Routledge, (p. 146).
- 25.
Rouvroy, A. (2008). Privacy, data protection, and the unprecedented challenges of ambient intelligence. Studies in Ethics Law and Technology, 2(1), 1–51, (p. 13).
- 26.
Andrejevic, M. (2012). Brain whisperers: Cutting through the clutter with neuromarketing. Somatechnics, 2(2), 198–215, (p. 211).
- 27.
Schneider, T. & Woolgar, S. (2012). Technologies of ironic revelation: Enacting consumers in neuromarkets. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 15(2), 169–189, (p. 171).
- 28.
Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and Time. (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, (p. 77).
- 29.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1995). Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, (p. 101).
- 30.
Walvis, T. (2008). The laws of branding. Journal of Brand Management, 16(3), 176–194, (p. 181, 183).
- 31.
SalesBrain. (2018). 7 Message Boosters. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1q75050
- 32.
Dreyfus, H. L. & Wrathall, M. A. (2005). Martin Heidegger: An introduction to his thought, work, and life. In H. L. Dreyfus & M. A. Wrathall (Eds.). A Companion to Heidegger (pp. 1–15). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, (p. 5).
- 33.
Mucha, T. (2005, August 1). This is your brain on advertising. Business 2.0. Retrieved from http://cnnmon.ie/1unadEP, (p. 3).
- 34.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1995). Being in the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- 35.
Ratcliffe, M. (2002). Heidegger’s attunement and the neuropsychology of emotions. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1, 287–312, (p. 289).
- 36.
Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and Time. (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, (p. 290).
- 37.
Gendlin, E. T. (1978/79). Befindlichkeit: Heidegger and the philosophy of psychology. Review of Existential Psychology & Psychiatry: Heidegger and Psychology, xvi, (1, 2 & 3). Retrieved from http://bit.ly/K1I9EL, (section III).
- 38.
Ratcliffe, M. (2002). Heidegger’s attunement and the neuropsychology of emotions. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1, 287–312, (p. 297).
- 39.
Ibid, (p. 299).
- 40.
du Plessis, E. (2011). The Branded Mind. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page, (p. 50).
- 41.
Comaford, C. (2013, September 9). Why we buy: The 3 social selling factors that make or break a sale. Forbes. Retrieved from http://onforb.es/1jXvOma
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nemorin, S. (2018). Structures of Understanding. In: Biosurveillance in New Media Marketing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96217-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96217-7_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96216-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96217-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)