World Science Day: why business researchers now make brain scans

What is it about a TV advert that triggers people to find the product online? Scanning consumers’ brains has allowed RSM's Linda Couwenberg to discover that a TV advert works best when it both highlights a product’s functional benefits and triggers the viewer’s imagination. This particular combination of elements activates specific parts of the viewer’s brain most intensely, she found, which makes the advert more effective.

World-shaking accounting scandals often originate in financial reporting from internal accountants. By studying internal accountants’ brain activity, Professor Frank Hartmann discovered that some misreporting comes from a neurological make-up that makes them more vulnerable to social pressure from managers promoting their own personal interests. Hartmann says the results shed a different light on who should – and who shouldn’t ‒ be hired for internal accountants’ positions.

Determining how well a crowdfunded project will be received by the ‘crowd’ has traditionally been done through surveys and polls. Research by Alexander Genevsky and a team of researchers now finds that scanning brain activity can make predictions of individual choices more accurate. But more importantly, the study also discovered that activity in one area of the brain can forecast the success of crowdfunded projects on the internet more reliably than the answers people give.