Researchers use brain scans on shoppers 4 Jan 2007

Science Blog reports the results of the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine which parts of the brain are active when people consider whether to purchase a product (and to predict whether or not they ultimately choose to buy the product). The findings are extremely insightful:

"This study challenges the conventional economic account of consumer purchases, which views consumers as deciding between the immediate pleasure of making a purchase and the delayed pleasures of alternative things for which the same money could be used. The results of this paper support an alternative perspective that views consumers as trading off the immediate pleasure of making a purchase against an immediate pain: the pain of forking out the money for the item. The results can explain the growing tendency of consumers to overspend when purchasing items with credit cards instead of cash, because consumers do not immediately pay for items charged to credit cards and the 'pain' of the potential loss is minimized."

Find out more about the study at Science Blog.