prisoners to the reptilian brain

Having a good knowledge of evolutionary neurobiology is beneficial and in fact necessary in order to understand and influence human behavior. Businesses constantly exploit this knowledge to their benefit by captivating consumers (via techniques like neuromarketing) into a voluntary enslavement towards their products or services. I attended a program where the concepts of evolutionary neurobiology were connected with those of consumer psychology and explained in an elegant manner.

The human brain can be broadly classified into 3 parts from an evolutionary standpoint :

1. Reptilian Brain : the most primitive component of the brain (common with reptiles) that has existed the longest time (~250 million years) in the evolutionary trajectory of human species . It is responsible for the basic survival instincts in humans like fear, lust and hoarding. It occupies a very smart part of brain in terms of volume and has very low energy consumption and functions even in an unconscious state.

2. Limbic (or) Mammalian Brain : the second level of the brain that is common with most mammals and has existed for about 100 million years in the evolutionary trajectory of human species. It is responsible for human emotions and sensory control. This component also has low energy consumption and functions even in an unconscious state.

3. Neocortex : the brain component which is a relatively recent evolutionary development (< 0.2 million years) and is unique to humans. It is responsible for logic and computation. It relatively consumes very high amount of energy and works only in a conscious state

The functions of reptilian and mammalian brain were essential for the survival of humans in their early evolutionary stages. Emotions and instincts of fear, lust and hoarding were essential to avoid predators, ensure procreation and survival. However in the present era, the external environment has considerably changed from what it was thousands of years ago - humans are not currently hunting and gathering for their survival. From a logical standpoint, a lot of the biological instincts governed by the reptilian and mammalian brain are not really necessary for our current survival but they still exist more like vestiges of the past. However they still surprisingly serve as a dominant part of the brain and influences a lot of the human behavior that would seem rather unnecessary from a purely rational standpoint. An evolutionary trait possessed by humans is energy preservation and humans tend towards ceding control to the reptilian and mammalian brain that functions subconsciously and requires minimal energy consumption. Consciously accessing the neocortex to overcome the vestigial and primal instincts requires high consumption and human tends to naturally avoid it. This results in our brain and consequently human behavior being dominated by subconscious emotions and instincts. Brands are aware of this anomaly in the human brain and take advantage of this through carefully crafted messaging in their ad campaigns that can specifically target and try to influence the reptilian and mammalian brain rather than only the rational brain or neocortex. For examples brands which showcase graphic images to arise fear or images showcasing happy moments try to stimulate the reptilian and mammalian brain and evoke our primitive animal instincts in order to persuade to us to take some action in reaction to the instinct. A technique called neuromarketing employed by brands, use neuro sensors to track and compare brain activity in the reptilian brain to decide which ad campaigns would be most effective to use. The data observed from neuromarketing will be surprisingly different from the conscious perception of the customers are on the showcased advertisements and brands choose to air the ad campaigns that have maximum effect on the reptilian brain as they believe that will ultimately dominate the decision making process in consumers.