Neuroethics and Responsibility in Conducting Neuromarketing Research
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REVIEW PAPER
Neuroethics and Responsibility in Conducting Neuromarketing Research Monica Diana Bercea Olteanu
Received: 1 February 2014 / Accepted: 12 December 2014 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract Over the last decade, academics and companies have shown an increased interest in brain studies and human cerebral functions related to consumer’s reactions to different stimuli. Therefore neuroethics emerged as a way to draw attention to ethical issues concerning different aspects of brain research. This review explores the environment of neuromarketing research in both business and academic areas from an ethical point of view. The paper focuses on the ethical issues involving subjects participating in neuroimaging studies, consumers that experience the effects of research results and also researchers that conduct such studies. Starting the analysis from the gaps in traditional marketing research, the paper provides information on ethics of neuromarketing research and its challenges and offers perspectives concerning the standards that should be implemented in order to allow the development of both neuroethics and neuromarketing under appropriate conditions.
Keywords Neuroethics . Neuromarketing . Neuroscience . Consumer free will
M. D. Bercea Olteanu (*) Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Marketing, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iasi, Romania e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction The disciplines of neuroscience and cognitive psychology advanced and joined forces to provide an entirely new paradigm for understanding the ways in which consumers develop, store, retrieve, and use information. Social cognitive neuroscience is an emerging area of research that can contribute to the development of new theories and the enrichment of the existing ones [1]. Companies increased their interest in neuromarketing studies that measure consumer choices, and therefore commercial, political, philosophical and law implications for the society arise from using these neuroimaging tools. By using technology advances in neuroscience, researchers can obtain information on brain responses to marketing stimuli. Anticipating ethical challenges is crucial in developing methods for effective research, as it also represents the aim of neuroethics. There are associations (Neuromarketing Science & Business Association, The European Society for Opinion and Market Research) and authors [2–10] interested in neuroethics and implications of neuromarketing research and their purpose is to share knowledge and protect social interests related to the discipline. Neuromarketing researchers are the individuals or organizations that perform neuroscience investigations for marketing purposes. These studies are performed using brain scanning techniques and the use of neuromarketing research nowadays involves parties that have different interests, such as:
M.D.B. Olteanu
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advertising agencies and marketing departments that want to pretest their campaigns, products, packagi
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