Abstract

Neuromarketing is an emerging interdisciplinary field dedicated to analyzing marketing strategy and consumer behavior, with the goal of personalizing strategies to target consumers. Neuromarketing generally utilizes neuroscience methodologies such as brain imaging techniques and physiological measurements. Scholars and the public alike have expressed reservations regarding unethical research and real-world applications of neuromarketing. Moreover, critics of the field have called into question both the quality of data from previous studies and the ability of neuromarketing researchers to analyze neuroscience data meaningfully. To examine the discussion about these ethical concerns, we conducted a rapid review of recent normative and empirical works that address the ethics of neuromarketing. In doing so, we performed structured searches on PhilPapers, Web of Science, and PubMed, followed by filtering according to specific exclusion criteria. Using a randomly selected subset of works, we identified a set of topical codes to analyze major ethical themes present within current literature. The ethical themes identified include privacy and confidentiality, personhood and human dignity, autonomy and informed consent, scientific limitations and validity, involvement of vulnerable groups, legislation and public policy, and fears of “mind control”. Through our systematic analysis of these distinct areas of ethical concern, our structured review highlights privacy and confidentiality and “mind control” as the most salient ethical considerations of neuromarketing and vulnerable groups and personhood and human dignity as prominent areas that require further attention from neuroethicists.