Neuromarketing: Ethical Issues

Some people are scared neuromarketing could be used to manipulate the consumer's brain. Are these arguments well-founded ? What are the pros and cons of neuromarketing ?

We can understand some concerns about the ethical aspects of the technique. However, here are some comments:

1) Interactions between neuropsychologists and marketing scientists are not new. Neuromarketing just uses new tools to answer the same questions. Evaluating the effect of a marketing campaign by looking at the sales is also a way to assess how well the campaign has marked people's brain.

2) MRI is not a machine to read the subjects thoughts! When talking about neuromarketing, it's important to understand well what functional MRI(fMRI) can or cannot show. Basically, fMRI uses the BOLD (Blood-Oxygen-Level Dependent) effect to localize the brain areas activated by a stimulus.

3) "Buy" button does not exist in the brain. Purchase decision, like any other act or emotion, is complex and involves many brain areas, which are poorly understood.

4) MRI cannot manipulate someone's brain. It's an imaging method not a stimulation technique.

5) MRI equipment is very expensive and research fundings are scarce. If mutually beneficial agreements can be found between research groups (whose aim is to further medicine) and marketing firms (whose aim is to increase their client's sales), why not ?

6) Neuromarketing is also an academic discipline (Lee et al. Int. J. PsychoPhysiol. 2007). Like neuroeconomics (Glimcher et al. Science 2004), neuromarketing can contribute to economic science.