Brainwaves Can Predict Audience Reaction of Television Programming

Media and marketing experts have long sought a reliable method of forecasting responses from the general population to future products and messages. According to a recent study published in Nature Communications, it appears that the brain responses of just a few individuals are a remarkably strong predictor. By analyzing the brainwaves of 16 individuals as they watched mainstream television content, researchers were able to accurately predict the preferences of large TV audiences, up to 90 percent in the case of Super Bowl commercials. While self-reporting can be unreliable, brain signals measured using electroencephalography (EEG) can, in principle, provide immediate physiological responses immune to self-biasing. In the study, participants watched scenes from The Walking Dead TV show and several commercials from the 2012 and 2013 Super Bowls. EEG electrodes were placed on their heads to capture brain activity. The reliability of the recorded neural activity was then compared to audience reactions in the general population using publicly available social media data provided by the Harmony Institute and ratings from USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. “Brain activity among our participants watching The Walking Dead predicted 40 percent of the associated Twitter traffic,” said senior author Lucas Parra. “When brainwaves were in agreement, the number of tweets tended to increase.” Brainwaves also predicted 60 percent of the Nielsen ratings that measure the size of a TV audience. The study was even more accurate (90%) when comparing preferences for Super Bowl ads. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers found evidence that brainwaves for engaging ads could be driven by activity in visual, auditory and attention brain areas. To lean more about this study, click here.