Guidelines for Neuroscience Studies in Information Systems Research

Abstract

Neuroscience provides a new lens through which to study information systems (IS). These NeuroIS studies investigate the neurophysiological effects related to the design, use, and impact of IS. A major advantage of this new methodology is its ability to examine human behavior at the underlying neurophysiological level, which was not possible before, and to reduce self-reporting bias in behavior research. Previous studies that have revisited important IS concepts such as trust and distrust have challenged and extended our knowledge. An increasing number of neuroscience studies in IS have given researchers, editors, reviewers, and readers new challenges in terms of determining what makes a good NeuroIS study. While earlier papers focused on how to apply specific methods (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging), this paper takes an IS perspective in deriving six phases for conducting NeuroIS research and offers five guidelines for planning and evaluating NeuroIS studies: to advance IS research, to apply the standards of neuroscience, to justify the choice of a neuroscience strategy of inquiry, to map IS concepts to bio-data, and to relate the experimental setting to IS-authentic situations. The guidelines provide guidance for authors, reviewers, and readers of NeuroIS studies, and thus help to capitalize on the potential of neuroscience in IS research.