The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World

In the study, twelve men, whose average age was thirty-one,

underwent brain scans while they looked at different kinds of cars—

small cars, limos, and sports cars. According to the Times, the hypoth-

esis was that since sports cars are social status symbols, they would be

perceived as the most rewarding and would produce the greatest acti-

vation of the brain’s “reward” circuitry.

Sure enough, that’s what happened. The cultural message that a

sports car is sexy has literally been encoded in the average male brain.

As the Times put it, “If our culture had deemed things like fuel econ-

omy, safety or more passenger room as sexy, there’s little doubt that

the average male reward pathway would follow suit.”

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Alas, despite what men say, they can’t convince ...