Neuromarketing and Sustainability

Recent studies show that Catalonia has stagnated in the municipal selective waste collection. According to the data of the waste agency of Catalonia (ARC), the municipal selective waste collection was 38.19% in 2014, 38.98% in 2015 and 38.61% in 2016. In the light of these data, the following question arises; is it possible to increase the selective waste collection? According to ARC, there are counties, such as Osona or Pallars Sobirà, which have a rate of 59.92% and 54.93% selective waste collection, respectively. With these data in mind, we proposed that our Primary Education students carried out a study of how a Neuromarketing campaign could influence a selective collection of plastic bottles caps for a humanitarian cause. We proposed conducting the study in five teaching centers and in one conducting a Neuromarketing campaign. The objective was to collect as many plastic caps as possible. This study was part of the Transversal Workshop on Sustainability that we organize every year at the University. The results obtained were spectacular, and this shows us that we must continue researching in this field. Neuromarketing is defined by Facchin, 2018 as the science that studies the purchasing behavior, consumption and decisions of the clients in relation to different products or services. Some studies done with volunteers using functional magnetic resonances (FMRI) or electroencephalography (EEG) allow us to know the effects of advertising in our unconscious brain (Monge and Fernández, 2011). These studies have provoked strong criticism for studying a part of the human body that is unable to control, and thus dominate the feelings of people (Morin, 2011).The results obtained show that Neuromarketing can be a good instrument to carry out solidarity campaigns related to sustainability.