When an advertisement claims that ownership of a new car will deliver certain emotions, it’s difficult to prove or disprove this. But Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury sub-brand, is aiming to set the record straight for at least one of its autos, with a new study set to be conducted in the Middle East.
Using EEG devices provided by Emotiv Inc., plus its own Q50 Red Sport 400 performance sedan, Infiniti is going to actually quantify consumers’ emotional responses to getting behind the wheel of their sports car. They’re also looking to show how these changes in brain activity can actually boost attention, focus, potential, and enjoyment.
“[This car] delivers an experience that provokes powerful emotions, passion and excitement, enabling its driver to really push their limits,” said Juergen Schmitz, managing director, Infiniti Middle East. “We are now focusing on translating what this emotion, power, and excitement really means through a unique and innovative study that will allow us to quantitatively test how the Q50 Red Sport 400 helps our drivers to unleash their potential.”
Infiniti is partnering with Emotiv, because its Insight headsets are currently the only wireless EEG headsets available for consumer application that boast five sensors for brainwave activity plus two reference sensors for calibrating the data. “We are confident that the result of this study will truly showcase the truly empowering drive that our Q50 Red Sport 400 users can expect,” added Schmitz.
To ensure transparency and the biggest possible sample group, Infiniti is opening the test up to anyone in the UAE who’s currently in the market for a new sports car. All they have to do is get in touch with their nearest Infiniti dealer. The results of the study will be revealed by the end of 2016.
In doing so, Infiniti is taking a page out of Volvo’s book (see above). In November 2013, the Swedish automotive brand partnered with EEG specialists Myndplay in order to understand the emotional impact of car design and see if a car’s aesthetics triggered the same responses in men and women.
Using EEG headsets and images carefully selected to elicit an emotional response, the study found that men experienced more emotion when looking at images of cars than when looking at photographs of children. In fact, 75 percent of men that took part in the experiment got more emotional when shown a car considered beautiful than when shown an image of a beautiful woman. When the tables were turned, just one-third of women rated a car more attractive than a handsome man.
—Relaxnews with additional reporting by the RealClearLife staff
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