Neurocoaching: exploring the relationship between coach and coachee by means of bioelectrical signal similarities

Neuroselling: applying neuroscience to selling for a new business perspective. An analysis on teleshopping advertising

This paper presents an innovative research project that aims to study the emotional factors influencing decision-making elicited by infomercials, a powerful sales technique that uses emotional communication to engage viewers, capture attention, and build trust. Using cutting-edge consumer neuroscience techniques, this study focuses on the identification of the variables that most impact the Call-to-Action and Purchase Intention. Forty participants were selected and divided into two groups, with each group exposed to one of two infomercials (condition A = male seller; condition B = female seller). EEG signals were recorded as well as Eye-tracking data. After the viewing, participants completed a self-report questionnaire. Results show that seller characteristics such as Performance and Trustworthiness, as well as Neurophysiological variables such as Approach-Withdrawal Index, Willingness to Pay, Attention and Engagement, significantly impact the final Call-to-Action, Purchase Intention, and infomercial Likeability responses. Moreover, eye-tracking data revealed that the more time is spent observing crucial areas of the infomercial, the more it will increase our Willingness to Pay and our interest and willingness to approach the infomercial and product. These findings highlight the importance of considering both the Seller attributes and the consumers' Neurophysiological responses to understand and predict their behaviors in response to marketing stimuli since they all seem to play a crucial role in shaping consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions. Overall, the study is a significant pilot in the new field of neuroselling, shedding light on crucial emotional aspects of the seller/buyer relationship and providing valuable insights for researchers and marketers.

Spectral differences in resting-state EEG associated to individual Emotional Styles

The ability to manage the emotions has been associated to the Emotional Styles (ES), a set of coherent ways to deal with life's experiences. Recently, the Emotional Style Questionnaire (ESQ) has been proposed as a self-report mea-sure to assess the individual ES. The present study investigates the spectral differences in the resting-state EEG due to the individual ES, in order to support the psychometric reliability of the ESQ with associated neurophysiological measurements. In the alpha and beta band, Social Intuition showed significant and large (d > 0.8) effect sizes on the parietal and parieto-occipital regions, as well as a significant and large effect size in the gamma band on the pre-frontal region. In the beta band, Attention showed a significant and large effect size on the parieto-occipital region.

It's a Question of Methods: Computational Factors Influencing the Frontal Asymmetry in Measuring the Emotional Valence

The prefrontal asymmetry (FA) in the alpha band is a well-known physiological correlate of the emotional valence. Several methods for assessing the FA have been proposed in literature, but no studies have compared their effectiveness in a comprehensive way. In this study we first investigated whether the association between FA and valence depends on the computational methods and then, we identified the best one, namely the one giving the highest correlation with the self-reports. The investigated factors were the presence of a normalization factor, the computation in time or frequency domain and the cluster of electrodes used. All the analyses were implemented on the validated DEAP dataset. We found that the number and position of the electrodes do not influence the FA, in contrast with both the power computation method and the normalization. By using a spectrogram-based approach and by adding a normalization factor, a correlation of 0.36 between the FA and the self-reported valence was obtained.

Job Assessment Through Bioelectrical Measures: A Neuromanagement Perspective

During recruitment, human resource departments face two challenges: finding the right people for the job and attracting talent. Therefore, the hiring process requires both the ability to communicate a good company brand image and to understand the characteristics and potential of candidates. In this study, we used a neuroscientific approach to measure the experience of candidates during a job interview. The experiment involved 30 participants that individually took part in a job interview lasting 40 min. During the experiment, their engagement and stress levels were measured in real-time with skin conductance and electroencephalographic (EEG) data. From the results, we identified both the most stressful phases (the second and the fourth parts, relating to the explanation of the job and remuneration) and the most engaging phases (the first and the third phases, relating to the presentation of the company and the explanation of the career process) of the interview, suggesting implications for the assessment process. This study is a contribution to the field of neuromanagement, as a neuroscientific approach was applied to management issues in light of work and organizational psychology.

Assessing the Emotional Response in Social Communication: The Role of Neuromarketing

Social advertising is designed to have an impact on the behavior of the target audience to improve the welfare of both the individuals and the society. The challenge for social marketing is to respond to the exchange process in a social perspective, considering that non-profit actions are perceived as intangible since they deal with services. As donations, the neuroscience applied to consumer behavior is an added value since it offers elements explaining the reactions of the individuals to emotional contents. Understanding the emotions in the moment in which they are felt allows to understand the experimentation of a message by individuals and to understand the possibility that the message can change the behavior of the target audience. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the Unicef bequest campaign in terms of emotional response, comparing different creative proposals to optimize communication, applying neuromarketing tools to the social area. The experiment involved 70 participants (35 males; 35 females; mean age 68.94 years) and compared two different spots and flyers. The progeny factor was introduced to assess the different impacts of bequests depending on the presence or absence of potential heirs. The neuromarketing tools such as electroencephalography (EEG), skin conductance (SC), and eye-tracker were used for instrumentation purposes. Analysis of the two spots showed statistically significant differences in both the Approach-Withdrawal Index (AWI), for the cognitive involvement, and the SC, the emotional activation indicator, particularly for those not having children (target audience) and in a specific spot that linked the possibility to live after death. The detection of the emotional responses through neuromarketing tools, associated with the non-profit communication, resulted particularly effective and verified an increment of 35% of the donations. Analyses performed with neuromarketing techniques allowed to understand both emotional intensity and cognitive involvement and to understand the best solution, according to the target audience and the aim of Unicef.