Persuasion
A somatic marker is the bodily signal an emotion leaves attached to an experience, which then guides decisions, often before reasoning does.
It is the hypothesis of the Portuguese neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, set out in Descartes' Error (1994): against the idea of a reason separate from emotion, Damasio shows that patients with damage to the brain areas linking emotion and decision reason well but choose badly. An acute emotion, such as fear, changes perceptions and behaviour in the short and medium term. In marketing it explains why, after a triggering event, consumers change habits and react strongly to contexts that recall it, and why trust in a brand is built in the body too.
An example
After a serious health crisis many people choose products that convey hygiene and safety, even once the risk has passed.
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