According to a new study produced by Emily Falk ’99 and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), neuroscientists can successfully predict human behavior through brain scanning. Published in the Journal of Neuroscience on June 23, 2010, the study shows that the scientists predicted whether or not twenty people would use sunscreen during a one-week period, achieving greater accuracy than the people’s own predictions.

Emily, lead researcher of the study, earned her PhD in psychology from UCLA last month. She conducted the study with senior author Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor. “It is surprising to find out that some technique might be able to predict my own behavior better than I can. Yet the brain seems to reveal something important that we may not even realize,” Emily said in a UCLA press release.

During the study, participants viewed a series of public service announcements that included messages about sunscreen. The scientists scanned the participants’ brains during the announcements, and afterwards asked them about their intentions to use sunscreen over the next week. A week later, scientists contacted the participants and asked how often they had actually used sunscreen since the study. It turned out that while participants sometimes correctly predicted their sunscreen use, scientists came up with more accurate predictions overall by looking at neural activity in one region of the participants’ brains, the medial prefrontal cortex.

Described by UCLA as the first persuasion study in neuroscience to predict behavior change, the study carries implications for advertising and public health campaigns. It is thought that the brain scanning technique could be used to develop a greater understanding of how to create persuasive public messages.

Emily, the recipient of UCLA’s Charles E. and Sue K. Young Award for outstanding research and teaching, received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Brown University and her master’s in psychology from UCLA. Starting in September, she will be an assistant professor of communication studies and psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she will also serve as a member of the university’s Institute for Social Research.

You can read more about the UCLA study in the following articles:

Daily Mail
“Scientists Can ‘Read’ Your Mind Better Than You Can Yourself”

Live Science
“Scientists Predict Your Behavior Better Than You Can”

National Post
“Neuroscientists Can Predict Your Behaviour Better Than You Can”

Research Magazine
“UCLA Researchers ‘Predict Behaviour’ Through Neuroscience”

Photo courtesy of the UCLA Newsroom.