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Buyology
240 pages
A fascinating, slightly unsettling peek under the hood of the human brain to see who is really driving our decisions.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like putting on a pair of X-ray glasses in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. It moves at a brisk, highly engaging clip, blending the slick appeal of a marketing pitch with the rigorous curiosity of a laboratory experiment. The mood is consistently revelatory, though tinged with a mild, entertaining paranoia as you begin to realize just how much of your daily decision-making is happening entirely without your conscious permission. The prose is snappy and anecdote-rich, designed to translate dense neurological data into cocktail-party-ready insights. It is a perfect fit for pop-psychology enthusiasts and curious consumers who delight in having their assumptions shattered and want to understand the invisible forces shaping their desires.
- Mood
- revelatory
- inquisitive
- slightly unsettling
- Tone
- conversational
- provocative
- enthusiastic
- authoritative
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the illusion of free will · subconscious manipulation · hidden desires · the intersection of science and commerce
- The writing
- Accessible and anecdote-rich, translating complex neurological data into snappy, digestible narratives.
- The arc
- Moves from naive curiosity about everyday choices to a startling, slightly paranoid realization of how deeply our subconscious is steered.
- Who it's for
- Curious consumers, marketers, and pop-psychology fans who love peeking behind the curtain of human behavior.
Content notes
- discussion of addiction
About the book
How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today's message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we're barely aware of them?In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among the questions he explores:Does sex actually sell? To what extent do people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses persuade us to buy products? Despite government bans, does subliminal advertising still surround us -- from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves? Can "Cool" brands, like iPods, trigger our mating instincts? Can other senses -- smell, touch, and sound - be so powerful as to physically arouse us when we see a product? Do companies copy from the world of religion and create rituals -- like drinking a Corona with a lime -- to capture our hard-earned dollars? Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today's consumer that will captivate anyone who's been seduced -- or turned off -- by marketers' relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds.
Description from Open Library.
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