Money can’t buy you love. It’s assumed, though, that it can buy loyalty—at least brand loyalty. But a new study shows that people with true expertise in a subject have some immunity to the siren song of [--1--]. The work appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Link to come.]

We worry about bias in [--2--], from the lab to the legislature. Because “gifts” from special interest groups, whether pharma companies or political action committees, could [--3--] the opinions of decision-makers.

To examine the relationship between gratuities and opinion, researchers asked 20 art experts and 20 non-experts to view a series of paintings. But first, subjects were shown the logo of a [--4--] company that would be giving them $300 for participating.

Turns out the non-experts were partial to paintings that were [--5--] the sponsor’s logo. That preference went hand in hand with the activation of a part of the brain involved in value judgment. The experts, on the other hand, showed no such bias. They switched on another part of the brain that apparently overrode the region won over by the cash.

So experts may be immune to subconscious bribery. But standard yes-men are still a dime a dozen.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
corporate sponsorship all walks of life sway fictitious paired with
对潜意识贿赂说不 金钱买不到真爱。不过也许它可以买到忠诚，至少是对品牌的忠诚。一项新的研究发现，在某一方面有真才实学的人们对广告赞助商的“糖衣炮弹”有一定的免疫力。这项研究发表在《美国国家科学学院院刊》上。 从实验室到立法机构，我们担心着各行各业的公正性。不论是制药公司还是政府机构，某些特殊的利益集团的“恩惠”总可以左右决策者的舆论。 为检验“小恩小惠”与舆论之间的联系，研究人员邀请20位艺术家和20位非专家观看一系列的绘画作品。但是，在观看之前研究人员向他们展示了一个虚拟公司的logo，并给他们300美金作为参与费。 结果证明这20位非专家都倾向于这些图画与赞助商的logo有关。而这种偏爱与大脑中的价值判断被同步激活。相对而言，专家们则没有这种偏爱。他们大脑中的另一区域明显战胜的金钱带来的诱惑。 所以，专家们可能对潜意识的贿赂免疫，但是那些只会点头的人仍是一抓一大把。