Buying In - (Page xvii) buying in xvii branded Coke trounced its unbranded self.) Remarkably, all this was true even though roughly half the subjects had stated a preference for Pepsi at the start of the experiment. And according to these neuroscientists’ interpretations of brain scans that they made of their subjects during the experiments, the key was that adding cultural information (in the form of the Coke brand) to the equation “recruits” different parts of the brain—where more complicated notions of the self and memories intermingle—into the decision-making process. And that’s what changed their minds. “Brand knowledge,” the researchers concluded, had a “dramatic effect . . . on subjects’ behavioral preference.” So we can talk all we want about being brandproof, but our behavior tells a different story. This is why I have come around to the view that there is nothing to be gained by simply believing we are immune to brands. But there might be something gained in understanding why we aren’t. And that’s where the story begins.
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