Attention is the scarcest resource in business. Neuroscience explains how brains decide what deserves it — and what that means for the future of marketing.

In the vibrant dance of marketing, the decoy effect is a backstage choreographer, silently directing choices without you even noticing. This phenomenon is as intriguing as it is influential, and recent neuroeconomic research takes us behind the curtains of the decision-making process. The researchers in Taiwan shed light on how our brain’s left ventral striatum reacts when we’re presented with three options, one of which is a decoy. This decoy, though unlikely to be chosen, s