There’s been a lot of blog linking the past couple of days to a Baylor College of Medicine study on how “cultural messages” (i.e. advertising, marketing, branding) affect the brain.
The sixty-seven people tested showed no preference for either Coke or Pepsi when they didn’t know which drink was which. When told what they were drinking, roughly three-fourths preferred Coke. All 67 also submitted to brain scans, and researchers said they could tell — even before people took a drink — which brand they preferred, because of the MRI.
“There?s a huge effect of the Coke label on brain activity related to the control of actions, the drudging up of memories, and things that involve self-image,” said Dr. Read Montague, director of the Brown Human Neuroimaging Lab, in the press release.
Really fascinating stuff.
More from Montague in the press release:
“We live in a sea of cultural messages. Everybody has heard of Coke and Pepsi, they have messages, and, in the case of Coke, those messages have insinuated themselves in our nervous systems. There is a response in the brain which leads to a behavioral effect ?- in this case, personal preference -? regarding these beverages.”
The study appeared in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Neuron.
Kudos to my homies in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine.