the brain: hidden motives

I was excited to see that episodes of Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda are currently on Hulu.com. In this episode about the hidden motives of the brain, Alan takes an interesting test where he is shown a variety of products, ranging from what many consider "cool" and "not cool." When comparing the brain's response to these images to a survey that Alan later fills out about what he thinks of each product, it is determined that Alan reacts negatively to things he feels are not cool, with not much brain activity happening when he looks at a cool object. Other people tested are the other way around: their brain activity increases when they see something they think is cool, and stays fairly normal when they see something uncool.

I wonder where most designers fit in? Maybe we are a combination of both. If you have a few minutes to spare, I reccommend watching at least the first segment of this video...very interesting and relevant to design.