The relationship between neuroscience, advertising and consumer manipulation

Introduction: The study analyzes the influence of neuroscience on advertising strategies and its impact on consumer behavior. It examines how neuromarketing techniques, based on sensory and emotional stimuli, manage to capture unconscious attention and condition purchasing decisions, generating an ethical debate on manipulation and cognitive autonomy.Method: A qualitative approach with an exploratory design was applied, through semi-structured interviews with fifteen randomly selected consumers in face-to-face and digital environments. The questions addressed perceptions about sensory advertising, emotional reactions and ethical limits of neuromarketing. The information was analyzed in an interpretative way, identifying coincidences, contrasts and common meanings.Results: The responses showed that advertisements with visual, auditory and emotional components provoke immediate recall and desire to buy. However, most of the participants said they felt vulnerable to the excessive personalization of messages and acknowledged having made impulse purchases. Categories such as induced emotion, unconscious attention, purchase impulse, brand identification and perception of manipulation emerged, revealing an ambivalent relationship between pleasure and distrust towards current advertising.Conclusions: neuroscience applied to advertising enhances communicative effectiveness, but also poses ethical dilemmas about the consumer's mental freedom. It is concluded that critical training, business transparency and the development of a neuroethics of consumption are essential to balance innovation and respect for individual autonomy in the contemporary commercial environment.