Neuromarketing and Business Ethics

Neurosciences experienced a dynamic development over the last decade and started to be an issue in other disciplines such as social and economic sciences as well. This trend became apparent in mar-keting too, forming a new discipline between neurosciences and marketing, the so called neuromarketing, which is the application of neuroscientific insights and methods for marketing purposes. Marketers communicate to achieve a desired behavior. Applying neuroscientific insights and methods, this sort of communication can be optimized and designed more efficiently and effectively. The consumer can feel threatened, fear for his privacy, his freedom of choice and ultimately his autonomy, feeling a justified desire for some sort of moral regulation wherever legal regulations are not effective or sufficient. For that purpose the new discipline of neuroethics has evolved, engaging in issues such as the personality and the self in the light of new neuroscientific insights and the ethical evaluation of neuroscientific studies.