“Note de synthèse” on: Access to deductive logic depends on a right ventromedial prefrontal area devoted to emotion and feeling: Evidence from a training program (Houdé et al., 2001)

Houdé et al. started remarking that humans have the special potentiality of being brain-constructed to access to logical thinking (Goel et al, 1997; Piaget, 1984). They also mentioned that there has been an historical and widespread opposition between emotion and reason –as suggested by Descartes–. That, nevertheless, has been questioned by relatively recent researches (Damasio 1994; Saver & Damasio, 1991, Aderson et al., 1999), which suggested the new idea that good reasoning is depended on emotions and feelings. However, this neural relation between emotion and reason was not tested in neurologically intact individuals until then. In that sense, Houdé et al. focused their research in the analysis –using positron emission tomography (PET)– of individuals’ shifts from error to logical reasoning, in order to identify to brain mechanisms that are activated when individuals start to think in a logical way.

Keep reading.../Sigue leyendo... [https://www.academia.edu/7393035/_Note_de_synthese_on_Access_to_deductive_logic_depends_on_a_right_ventromedial_prefrontal_area_devoted_to_emotion_and_feeling_Evidence_from_a_training_program_Houde_et_al._2001_]

“Note de synthèse” on: Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness (Plassmann et al., 2008)

In the research entitled “Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness”, Plassmann, O’Doherty, Shiv and Rangel started indicating that there is a limited knowledge regarding the neural mechanisms by which marketing actions have an effect on people. Then, they proposed to study with fMRI the case of the variation of prices –a kind of marketing action–, which could affect experienced pleasantness and its neural representations. They chose the evaluate the particular case of wine tasting, looking for evidence that will support the idea that higher prices of a wine, increases the subjective report of the pleasantness for individuals.

Keep reading.../Sigue leyendo... [https://www.academia.edu/7365029/_Note_de_synthese_on_Marketing_actions_can_modulate_neural_representations_of_experienced_pleasantness_Plassmann_et_al._2008_]

A surreal “Split or Steal” game?

“Golden balls” was a popular British game show aired between 2007 and 2009. With around 2 million viewers per episode, it became ITV network’s summer hit in 2007 (Brook, 2007). One of the most interesting and controversial parts of the game show was its final round (Raine, 2009), when participants are confronted to an ultimate game called “Split or Steal?”, a one-shot game with characteristics of a weak Prisoner’s dilemma. The design of the “Split or Steal?” game followed the pattern used in previous shows, such as the 2001 British game show “Shafter” or the 2002 American game show “Friend or Foe?”.

Keep reading.../Sigue leyendo... [https://www.academia.edu/7279544/A_surreal_Split_or_Steal_game]

Pricebo effect: The Cannabis case

Pricebo is portmanteau of the words price (from Latin pretium, “worth, price, money spent, wages, reward”) and placebo (from Latin placēbō, “I shall please”) coined and suggested to me by Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University Professor Le Lec during the development of my Master 1 thesis entitled Pricebo effect: The Cannabis case. The term pricebo, along with its related term pricebo effect, is used as a way to address the particular case when prices act as placebos, being able to influence—through expectations—the perceived quality of a product.

Is Anchoring influencing our daily life (economic) decisions?

Anchoring is one of the most important biases to consider in our daily life decisions and judgments under uncertainty (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). Its importance lies mainly in two aspects: its capacity and its prevalence. Regarding the first aspect, it has the capacity to attach or “anchor” our thoughts to certain reference point, in that sense, it leads to a distortion of how we assess probabilities in our daily lives. Concerning its prevalence, anchoring acts commonly when people deal with new concepts and objects, involving also a deep mechanism that avoid people from escape or control its influence, even when there are incentives for controlling its effects (Simmons et al., 2010) or when people are conscious of the bias (Wilson et al., 1996).

Keep reading.../Sigue leyendo... [https://www.academia.edu/7237433/Is_Anchoring_influencing_our_daily_life_economic_decisions]

The salchiproblem: The impulsive purchase of salchipapa in Peru

These last years the Peruvian cuisine has experienced a boom in its consumption. Nowadays, there are higher quality restaurants and other interesting ideas to spread some kind of Peruvian fast food service in the country, like the "Combi salchipapera": A kind of van that sells "salchipapa", a Peruvian fast food dish that consists mainly of "salchicha" (sausage) and "papa" (potato). Last year, while one of the most famous Peruvian chefs, Gastón Acurio, was the main promoter of this business idea, there was also some criticism coming from health professionals, like from Elmer Huerta, ex-president of the American Cancer Society. The criticism was based on the evidence that the salchipapa is not precisely the healthiest Peruvian dish. Contrary to being healthy, if the salchipapa is promote and widespread (Borzekowski et al., 2007, Effects of fast food branding on young children's taste preference), it will become a potential public health problem (Huerta, 2012, Las salchipapas, las combis y la salud pública).

Keep reading.../Sigue leyendo... [https://www.academia.edu/5490350/The_salchiproblem_The_impulsive_purchase_of_salchipapa_in_Peru]

Curiosidad: "¿Qué es la maldad?"

Luego de otro buen tiempo sin postear regreso a mi blog con la idea de volver difundir un muy interesante decumental. El ciclo continúa con un episodio muy interesante de la conocida serie "Curiosidad", el episodio se titula "¿Qué es la maldad?", una versión actual de un muy interesante experimento de psicología social: El experimento de Milgram. ¡Disfrútenlo! ;)