Ransom Riggs
This is Your Brain on Horror Movies
by Ransom Riggs - September 16, 2009 - 1:57 PM

neuromarketingMRI technology has been around for years, but only recently have people outside of the medical industry started using it — for marketing research. Using MRIs to “peek inside” the brain while test subjects watch commercials, political speeches or are presented with different types of products drew a bit of controversy initially (they’ll start advertising to us subliminally!) but over the past few years acceptance has grown as more and more companies are taking advantage of the technology. Former mental_flosser Mary Carmichael wrote about neuromarketing back in 2004. She describes a neuromarketer’s perspective on the “Pepsi Challenge” —

Montague had his subjects take the Pepsi Challenge while he watched their neural activity with a functional MRI machine, which tracks blood flow to different regions of the brain. Without knowing what they were drinking, about half of them said they preferred Pepsi. But once Montague told them which samples were Coke, three-fourths said that drink tasted better, and their brain activity changed too. Coke “lit up” the medial prefrontal cortex — a part of the brain that controls higher thinking.

Marketers have also been using MRI to measure moviegoers’ response to movie trailers, and now — taking it a step further — a movie producer, Peter Katz, has used neuromarketing to analyze scenes from his latest film, horror flick Pop Skull. He took footage from the film down to MindSign Neuromarketing in San Diego, which analyzed the brain activity of a test subject during repeated viewings of two scenes. They were watching for activity in the Amygdala, a part of the brain that plays a primary role in the processing of emotional reactions — particularly fear. Peter was kind enough to put together a video of the test and provide us with a clip from it. You can see in real time as the test subject’s fear center “lights up” during certain parts of each clip. (Warning, there’s a sort-of-graphic knife to the gut near the end of the second clip. Not safe for kiddies.)

Could this technology change the way movies are made? (Or, perhaps more to the point, should it?) What do you think?

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Comments (8)

  1. It doesn’t seem very likely that this technology is going to have much effect on the way movies are made. It seems way too expensive and time consuming compared to test screenings for example.

    I would be more interested in a study on the neurological responses in different individuals in regards to things like age, gender, personality, how often they watch horror, etc. Which people are more apt to be disturbed or frightened by what they see? Which ones more likely to exhibit ambivalence or even pleasure?

    recaptcha: $17-million cognac (Must be some good stuff!)

    posted by Nerak on 9-16-2009 at 2:23 pm

  2. In addition to Nerak’s comment, with those results, producers and directors can take that study and work the more “prefered” method of scaring people, and be more accurate in targeting their prime demographic.

    posted by Steven on 9-16-2009 at 2:27 pm

  3. I find this quite fascinating. The trouble with it is that some people (my self included) go to horror movies for the whole ambience of the event, (i.e. darkness,deserted house etc.). The movie itself may not be a cinematic achievement, but entertaining all the same. If movies are pre-examined scientifically, who knows what we will be missing. I think it would be detrimental to the genre and all its supporters. Some of us are conniseurs of the cheesy and low budget. Blair Witch anyone?

    posted by Eileen on 9-16-2009 at 3:14 pm

  4. Did anyone else find it odd that the subject went “blue” right after the guy got gutted and was crawling around dying on the floor?

    posted by Hastings on 9-16-2009 at 3:15 pm

  5. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could make a movie, be it horror, romance or comedy, that no one could resist and it instantly became the greatest movie of all time?!? I bet it would have the most random scenes ever and no one could follow the plot…I bet that was how Citizen Kane was produced!

    posted by graham on 9-16-2009 at 4:01 pm

  6. If anyone has questions regarding Neurocinema please email me at Neurocinema@gmail.com.

    Peter Katz

    posted by Peter Katz on 9-16-2009 at 4:08 pm

  7. I think this technology could be incredibly beneficial to movie studios… I’ve been to private test screenings for films that haven’t been released yet, and afterwards they give me a survey to fill out. I can’t remember what scene’s good or bad, so I leave it all blank. If studios were using this tech, they would have a more accurate reading of people like me… people w/ short term memories. Or ADD. haha

    posted by Dang on 9-17-2009 at 3:16 pm

  8. I definitely think this can be used to great success in finding whats good and/or bad in a particular scene. Now if they can create large MRI theaters….

    posted by paolo on 9-17-2009 at 8:34 pm

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