Neuroscience-based consumer research promises to open new vistas in our understanding of how people respond to products, brands, and messaging. Thanks to these new techniques, we can now explore human motivations, attitudes, decisions, and behavior much more deeply than we ever could before.

However, as with all new techniques, a good dose of skepticism is appropriate, and education is required, to clarify what is and is not scientifically feasible and ethically appropriate.

Our industry must be forthright and proactive in ensuring the highest ethical standards in the practice of neuro-based research.

Buyers need to know the right question to ask vendors, and vendors need to be responsive in answering those questions.

Only to the extent that the neuro-based research community addresses these issues can it become a full and trusted partner in the market research community, and a valued provider to the product and marketing communities we serve.

In this section we outline Lucid's code of ethics and propose some guidelines for best practices in ethical neuroscience-based research.