{"id":1960,"date":"2025-04-07T13:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T11:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T11:28:12","slug":"what-we-see-vs-what-we-feel-the-neuroscience-of-emotional-impact-in-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/resources\/what-we-see-vs-what-we-feel-the-neuroscience-of-emotional-impact-in-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"What We See vs. What We Feel: The Neuroscience of Emotional Impact in Marketing\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We all know a powerful ad when we see one. But how often do we stop to ask\u2014did we <em>feel<\/em> it, or just recognize that we were <em>supposed to<\/em>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/imag\/article\/doi\/10.1162\/imag_a_00517\/128331\/Cerebral-topographies-of-perceived-and-felt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new neuroscience study<\/a> (Cerebral topographies of perceived and felt emotions, Saarim\u00e4ki, Heini et al., 2025) offers a fresh lens on this distinction. Researchers used fMRI scans to observe how our brains respond while watching emotional movie scenes. The findings highlight a crucial divide: <strong>perceiving<\/strong> an emotion on screen doesn\u2019t guarantee we <strong>feel<\/strong> it ourselves. And the difference isn\u2019t just emotional\u2014it\u2019s anatomical.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For marketers, especially those working with AI-based testing or creative optimization, this raises a pivotal question: Are your campaigns sparking genuine emotional engagement\u2014or just signaling it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1760959620756_67\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5e1dd5dac094e135e4a14bf0\/5f1a4cff-3998-4118-9fdb-8c770f0c6070\/1743485602582.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u00a9 Brainsuite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Anatomy of Emotion: Perceived vs. Felt<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In the study, participants watched more than two hours of emotionally charged movie content while researchers mapped their brain activity. The results revealed two kinds of responses:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Shared emotional states<\/strong>: Emotions like <strong>joy<\/strong>, <strong>amusement<\/strong>, and <strong>surprise<\/strong> triggered strong, consistent brain activation across participants. These feelings were not just seen\u2014they were <strong>felt<\/strong>, deeply and collectively. Areas tied to empathy, memory, and self-awareness lit up in sync.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Surface emotions<\/strong>: In contrast, emotions such as <strong>guilt<\/strong>, <strong>pride<\/strong>, and <strong>anger<\/strong> were often perceived but rarely shared. These responses didn\u2019t register the same deep neural engagement.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, emotions high in arousal and with clear sentiment polarity\u2014either strongly positive or negative\u2014were far more likely to cross the threshold from screen to sensation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why It Matters for Marketers<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Emotion drives recall, influences decision-making, and shapes brand perception. But not all emotional cues are created equal. Neuroscience tells us that <strong>only some emotions \u201cland\u201d<\/strong>\u2014and the ones that do tend to be visceral, high-energy, and clearly valenced.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This insight is critical for anyone evaluating creative assets, particularly with AI.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Brainsuite\u2019s Take: A Neuroscience-Informed Proxy for Emotional Resonance<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>At Brainsuite, we take a different route from traditional viewer-response modeling. Instead of trying to track every user\u2019s emotional state, we focus on the <strong>emotional architecture embedded in the content itself<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s how it works:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Our AI models measure <strong>arousal<\/strong> and <strong>sentiment polarity<\/strong> across all creative assets.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Neuroscience shows that content scoring high in these dimensions\u2014like <strong>amusement<\/strong>, <strong>fear<\/strong>, or <strong>surprise<\/strong>\u2014is more likely to evoke a felt response.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This gives us a science-backed, content-level proxy for predicting <strong>emotional impact<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t guess. We don\u2019t generalize. We translate the way the brain processes emotional content into actionable insights for marketers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re testing a TVC, digital banner, or social ad, Brainsuite provides clear indicators on whether your creative is likely to resonate\u2014<em>not just be recognized<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>From Recognition to Resonance<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In a cluttered media landscape, surface-level emotion is not enough. The best-performing content doesn\u2019t just mimic feeling\u2014it elicits it. And now, thanks to neuroscience and AI, we have the tools to <strong>predict<\/strong> which assets are likely to make that leap.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <strong>Ready to evaluate your creative for real emotional impact? <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/getbrainsuite.com\/platform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Explore our platform<\/strong><\/a><strong> and learn how Brainsuite helps you move from recognition to resonance\u2014at scale.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sources:&nbsp;<br>Saarim\u00e4ki, H., Nguyen, M., Oosterhof, N. N., et al. (2025). Cerebral topographies of perceived and felt emotions. Imaging Neuroscience. <a href=\"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/imag\/article\/doi\/10.1162\/imag_a_00517\/128331\/Cerebral-topographies-of-perceived-and-felt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/imag\/article\/doi\/10.1162\/imag_a_00517\/128331\/Cerebral-topographies-of-perceived-and-felt<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know a powerful ad when we see one. But how often do we stop to ask\u2014did we feel it, or just recognize that we were supposed to?&nbsp; A new neuroscience study (Cerebral topographies of perceived and felt emotions, Saarim\u00e4ki, Heini et al., 2025) offers a fresh lens on this distinction. Researchers used fMRI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atl-brand-communication","category-blog","category-market-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainsuite.ai\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}