Neuro Design: Neuromarketing Insights to Boost Engagement and Profitability

For many purchase decisions we don’t invest too much time or consideration. We just get a quick feel for whether we like a brand or product and whether we think it matches what we are looking for. Psychologists call this type of conclusion drawn on small bits of evidence ‘thin slicing’.

heavily biased towards things we have just encountered. Studies have shown that when people are primed with a concept – like ‘rudeness’, for example – they are then more likely to interrupt someone, and when primed with the concept of old age, they are more likely to walk more slowly.2 Similarly, people primed with the concepts of luxury or thrift

indulgence, were triggering related concepts in the minds of participants and affecting their behaviour. This shows how priming also triggers the things that we mentally closely associate with the prime: such as old age being associated with walking more slowly. The images we see immediately before or at the time of a decision can influence our beh

‘expressivity halo’: ‘people who communicate in an expressive, animated fashion tend to be liked more than difficult-to-read people; even if they are expressing something such as irritation. Because we’re more confident in our reading of them, they are less of a threat.’

(2016) he gives a good example of how context can prime us to be receptive to different types of advertising messages. He realized that two of our most powerful drives – to stay safe and to find a partner and procreate – can lead to two opposing behaviour strategies at any particular moment: the desire to be supported by fitting in with the crowd (

show each page or design for five seconds – this is a manageable time for opening and closing a page under controlled timing.

(dating back to the 19th century) was AIDA,…

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As it is slower and takes mental energy and effort to employ, most people tend to shy away from using it where possible. System 2 is generally only triggered when we are unwilling or unable to use System 1.

We are visual creatures. We didn’t evolve to read, but we did to look at imagery. It is our most salient sense, and the one that takes up the largest real estate in the brain.