In 2010, researchers at UCLA performed a study in which they took MRI images of subjects’ brains as they viewed advertisements promoting sunscreen use (Falk et al., 2010). Following the MRI scans, the researchers asked subjects to predict their own sunscreen use over the next two weeks. The researchers then compared these predictions with predictions derived from the MRI scans. Compared with the subjects’ own predictions of future sunscreen use, the researchers found the data from the MRI scans “predicted an average 23% of the variance in the behavior change beyond the variance predicted by self-reported attitudes and intentions.” In other words, the data from the MRI scans more accurately predicted the subjects’ behavior over the next two weeks than did the subjects themselves. That said…