Ethics in Consumer Neuroscience: A Non-Exhaustive Presentation

Social sciences have always been subject to ethical considerations, from research to explicit use and implicit meaning of their findings; Consumer Neuroscience has vigorously developed over the last twenty years and associated ethical concerns have promptly come into the picture. As the effectiveness of the existing neuroscience tools and techniques is just being discovered by researchers in most social sciences, I hypothesize that associated ethical issues will become more prominent in the future. The current article does not attempt to provide an exhaustive view of these issues and possible solutions; it just tackles some of the most important ones differentiating between those specific to Consumer Neuroscience and those rather common for most other social sciences. From this standpoint, large differences were found when analyzing research objectives, instruments, data disclosure, and findings dissemination and use as well as participants’ protection and data privacy rights. The framework of the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA) proposed Code of Ethics was used as a starting point for this material, which provides a brief assessment of the current state of each principle put forward by the Code based on an extensive literature review. Although this Code’s provisions are quite similar to the ones put forward by the European Charter for Researchers of 2000, European Commission’s Ethics in Social Sciences and Humanities of 2001, and several national-level regulations, it was the first choice for this study as it comes specifically from researchers and practitioners in Consumer Neuroscience. Finally, the current paper shall argue for a balanced and realistic approach when attempting to regulate the domain, ensuring the rules effectively protect the participants and users while not unnecessarily increasing research difficulty. As Neuroscience approaches are increasingly accepted by Marketing and other social sciences, a sound and functional ethical foundation would help safe, fair, and fast advances rather than allow for abuses or constitute unnecessary impediments.