Unlike fuel economy or available trunk space, when publicity for a new car claims that ownership will deliver certain emotions, the claims are difficult to prove or disprove. But Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury sub-brand, aims to set the record straight on the matter with a new study set to be conducted in the Middle East that doubles as a piece of publicity.
Using EEG devices provided by Emotiv Inc, plus its own Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 performance sedan, it is going to quantify consumers’ emotional response to getting behind the wheel of a sportscar; and to show how these changes in brain activity can actually boost attention, focus, potential and enjoyment – creating a virtuous emotional circle.
“[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.
Infiniti will seek to identify and measure the level of human excitement unleashed when individuals get behind the wheel of the recently launched Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400.
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 sportscar. All they have to do is get in touch with their nearest Infiniti dealer. The result of the study will be revealed before the end of 2016.
In doing so, Infiniti is taking a leaf out of Volvo’s book. In November 2013 the Swedish automotive marque partnered with EEG specialists Myndplay in order to understand the emotional impact of car design and to 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. What’s more, 75% 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 woman rated a car more attractive than a handsome man.
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