Scientists Develop Brain Scan That Predicts 75% Of Behavior

(ChattahBox) – A new type of brain scan has provided insight into human behavior, which doctors hope will be useful in motivating patients…and advertisers hope will be helpful in motivating consumers.

Scientists viewed live brain scans of volunteers, feeding them messages about using sunscreen. They then looked at what the volunteers said about using sunscreen, versus what the scans told them they would do. They then pitted that information against their use of sunscreen over the next week.
Each time, the scans showed what they would do better than what the volunteers said they would.

“Many people ‘decide’ to do things, but then don’t do them,” study leader Matthew Lieberman said.

Patients correctly predicted the use of sunscreen in the following week nearly half the time, but the scans were reliable 75% of the time.
The next phase of the experiments is set to begin, which willk include motivational images about quitting smoking.