Who is the best James Bond?
For many years, the question of which of the actors playing Her Majesty’s agent makes the best image of a brilliant and brave Bond has been fiercely discussed. Habitués of Internet forums, respectable journalists, women at café tables and men in gyms — they have all tried to solve the puzzle. Could it be the roguish Sean Connery, the witty Roger Moore, or maybe the Hamlet-like Timothy Dalton? How about the irresistibly handsome Pierce Brosnan or the wild Daniel Craig with his iron look?
Study of Declarations, Reaction Times & Brain Waves.
We divided the test into three parts. Firstly, we asked respondents to indicate in a paper-and-pencil questionnaire, which Bond was the best. In the second part of the experiment, we compared fans’ conscious vs. subconscious reactions. To capture the latter we used a Reaction Time (RT) or BIONAVITM method. In the third part of the experiment, we tested our guest’s brains directly by analyzing their cortex electrical activity, i.e. brainwaves or EEG. The EEG allows the analysis of the brain activity (to detect) detecting the nature of our reactions — are they positive (approach tendency) or negative (withdrawal tendency).
And the winner is…
In the first part of the study the votes of our guests always showed that Pierce Brosnan was the best Bond. But the subconsciously driven RT discovered, that when we ask:
- Who is the greatest womanizer? Pierce Brosnan
- Who is greatest sense of humor? Roger Moore
- Who is the most handsome? Daniel Craig
It is all matter of perspective.
NEURO community cares about health and well-being
According to the World’s Health Organization’s report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic (2011), a third of the global adult population smokes, which results in 5 million smoking-related deaths per year worldwide. It is estimated that by the 2030, this number will increase to 8 million deaths annually. Keeping in mind the health and well-being of people around the world, our community at Neuromarketing Science & Business Association (NMSBA) has decided to address this matter by initiating in 2014 the „Neuro Against Smoking” (NAS) Project. The goal we set, was to check, what is the true impact and effectiveness of anti-tobacco warnings presented on cigarette packs across the globe, and to show that neuro measures can bring new, and valuable insights, to the existing discussion on cigarette warnings.
We used the Reaction Time method to explore consumer’s emotional attitudes. According to Russel Fazio’s experiments people with fast Reaction Times are more certain of their attitudes, and thus, these attitudes are more likely to be transferred into real behavior.
Smoking kills
Warnings messages used in the Neuro Against Smoking (NAS) Project; According to WHO recommendations. Identifying effective solutions to fight against smoking. When designing the research, we thoroughly took under consideration the WHO’s recommendations stating that (1) warnings should cover a minimum 30% of the package, (2) they can consist either of text only or text + picture, and (3) they can present various content – oriented towards smokers or smokers and people around them. We selected four different warning messages for testing.
Value of NEURO tools
On a declarative level both pictures and text warnings were evaluated as trustworthy, however Reaction Times was faster in the case of pictures — it means that people are more convinced that pictures are truly trustworthy. It proves that the application of combined explicit and implicit measures can be beneficial, to find the most effective solution, and identify drivers that have a real impact on smoker’s behavior.