Neural Predictors of Purchases

Knutson, Brian; Rick, Scott; Wimmer, G. Elliott; Prelec, Dražen; Loewenstein, George

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2006.11.010

Cited by 985 publications

(892 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…3a). The SEM was based on known anatomical connections between the OFC and NACC and their relationships to subjective likability and purchase decisions (Chib, Rangel, Shimojo, & O'Doherty, 2009;Knutson, et al, 2007;Montague & Berns, 2002;O'Doherty, Kringelbach, Rolls, Hornak, & Andrews, 2001;Plassmann et al, 2007;Rolls, 2000). Consistent with this literature, the average song likability had significant path coefficients to both the OFC and NACC, and because of the direct connection between OFC and NACC, this path was also significant.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…More recently, however, the widespread use of neuroimaging has raised the possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the marketing process (Ariely & Berns, 2010). Neuroeconomic research suggests that activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum is predictive of future purchasing decisions of the individuals who are scanned (Hare, O'Doherty, Camerer, Schultz, & Rangel, 2008;Knutson, Rick, Wimmer, Prelec, & Loewenstein, 2007;Plassmann, O'Doherty, & Rangel, 2007;Plassmann, O'Doherty, Shiv, & Rangel, 2008). For neuroimaging to be useful in either a marketing or branding application, however, these neural signals would need to generalize to a larger group of individuals who themselves were not the direct object of brain scanning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A neural predictor of cultural popularity

2011

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We use neuroimaging to predict cultural popularity -something that is popular in the broadest sense and appeals to a large number of individuals. Neuroeconomic research suggests that activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, is predictive of future purchasing decisions, but it is unknown whether the neural signals of a small group of individuals are predictive of the purchasing decisions of the population at large. For neuroimaging to be useful as a measure of widespread popularity, these neural responses would have to generalize to a much larger population that is not the direct subject of the brain imaging itself. Here, we test the possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict the relative popularity of a common good: music. We used fMRI to measure the brain responses of a relatively small group of adolescents while listening to songs of largely unknown artists. As a measure of popularity, the sales of these songs were totaled for the three years following scanning, and brain responses were then correlated with these "future" earnings. Although subjective likability of the songs was not predictive of sales, activity within the ventral striatum was significantly correlated with the number of units sold. These results suggest that the neural responses to goods are not only predictive of purchase decisions for those individuals actually scanned, but such responses generalize to the population at large and may be used to predict cultural popularity.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

2011

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“…By contrast, inequitable decision making was accompanied by engagement of the AI, a region previously associated with subjective disutility (29). AI activity in this context cannot be ascribed to being self-serving (which also occurred during selfserving/equitable trials) or to being offered less money than the receiver (which also occurred during generous/equitable trials) but likely represented a response to inequity itself.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Equitable decision making is associated with neural markers of intrinsic value

Zaki

Mitchell

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

165

154

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Standard economic and evolutionary models assume that humans are fundamentally selfish. On this view, any acts of prosocialitysuch as cooperation, giving, and other forms of altruism-result from covert attempts to avoid social injunctions against selfishness. However, even in the absence of social pressure, individuals routinely forego personal gain to share resources with others. Such anomalous giving cannot be accounted for by standard models of social behavior. Recent observations have suggested that, instead, prosocial behavior may reflect an intrinsic value placed on social ideals such as equity and charity. Here, we show that, consistent with this alternative account, making equitable interpersonal decisions engaged neural structures involved in computing subjective value, even when doing so required foregoing material resources. By contrast, making inequitable decisions produced activity in the anterior insula, a region linked to the experience of subjective disutility. Moreover, inequity-related insula response predicted individuals' unwillingness to make inequitable choices. Together, these data suggest that prosocial behavior is not simply a response to external pressure, but instead represents an intrinsic, and intrinsically social, class of reward.functional MRI | neuroeconomics | game theory | orbitofrontal cortex

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“…Recent approaches of utilizing fMRI data to predict an individual's choices have met with varying success rates. In general, approaches that utilize distributed patterns of activation do better than approaches relying on individual brain regions (Hampton and O'Doherty, 2007;Knutson et al, 2007;LaConte et al, 2006). The results of the regression analysis of our choice data indicate that there is a strong relationship between passively evoked activations and subsequent decisions about the same stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Choice may be subject to a stochastic process, such as an error in evaluating the payoffs of the available alternatives, which is not present during passive experience (Luce, 1959). Although recent studies have used brain activation to predict decisions (Hampton and O'Doherty, 2007;Knutson et al, 2007), these studies have relied on activation during the choice itself, and may therefore be subject to a similar stochastic component. This would explain why our results have a higher predictive power using passive activations than other studies have found using activation during decision making.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear neurobiological probability weighting functions for aversive outcomes

Berns¹,

Capra²,

Chappelow³

et al. 2008

NeuroImage

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While mainstream economic models assume that individuals treat probabilities objectively, many people tend to overestimate the likelihood of improbable events and underestimate the likelihood of probable events. However, a biological account for why probabilities would be treated this way does not yet exist. While undergoing fMRI, we presented individuals with a series of lotteries, defined by the voltage of an impending cutaneous electric shock and the probability with which the shock would be received. During the prospect phase, neural activity that tracked the probability of the expected outcome was observed in a circumscribed network of brain regions that included the anterior cingulate, visual, parietal, and temporal cortices. Most of these regions displayed responses to probabilities consistent with nonlinear probability weighting. The neural responses to passive lotteries predicted 79% of subsequent decisions when individuals were offered choices between different lotteries, and exceeded that predicted by behavior alone near the indifference point.

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Neural Predictors of Purchases

Cited by 985 publications

References 38 publications

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

Equitable decision making is associated with neural markers of intrinsic value

Nonlinear neurobiological probability weighting functions for aversive outcomes

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