Have you ever noticed how the cheapest, generic brands are on the lowest shelves in the grocery store? Or that brightly colored, cartoon-adorned boxes are at thigh level for most adults? How about the end of each aisle, known as the endcap, featuring products that are supposedly on sale? Did you notice that you get hungrier after sampling that smoked sausage handed out by the sweet little old lady? Psychological tricks are being played all over the grocery store to assault your senses and get you to buy B.S. (Bull Speak).

Each of these are marketing tricks to get you to spend more, eat more, and stay longer. That smoked sausage, as well as aromas from the bakery and produce sections, gets your salivary glands working. Once your taste buds are tantalized, your sense of smell leads to less disciplined shopping. The endcap promotions are actually sold to manufacturers to increase sales. They’re shortcuts so that we don’t have to take the long walk down the grocery aisle. Any parent who has ever shopped with a child can attest to the very real bullying that happens through product placement at the eye level of kids.

As you go through the store, play a game to find food that is the hardest to reach. Your reward will likely be the best priced products. Know that every inch of the grocery store has been meticulously planned, designed, and negotiated to appeal to your needs, either directly or through subtle, psychological means. Don’t let your senses be assaulted when buying food, or your brain will become more littered.

All of the bullying strategies I have discussed above are a direct result of a concept called neuromarketing. What is neuromarketing and how is it used to affect our food buying decisions?

First you have to understand the brain, though it is difficult for most of us to comprehend neuroscience. The best explanation I’ve seen is from John Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, who divides the human mind into two parts: an elephant and a rider. The rider is the rational mind—the stream of words and images of which we are fully aware. The elephant is the 99% of the mental processes—the ones that occur outside of awareness but actually govern most of our behavior. For example, the rational mind (the rider), wants a great beach body, but the emotional mind wants those Cheetos. The rational mind (the rider) wants to cook healthier during the cold winter months, but the emotional mind (the elephant) loves the comfort of hearty, rich foods once served by your grandma.

Haidt points out that it becomes the rider’s job to serve the elephant. In short, our rational brain often serves our emotional brain. A two-hundred-pound rider isn’t likely to move six tons of elephant, unless the rider’s brain is more developed than the elephant’s brain. This example also points to one of the greatest differences between humans and animals; humans can use our more developed rational brain to corral our emotional brain, just as human intellect allows us to train elephants and other animals.

Food bullies tap into the emotional brain through neuromarketing to motivate you to support their platform or product, with little concern about the litter they leave behind. One of the ways to combat this is to know your health, ethical environmental and social standards.

While it may seem very academic, fascinating research is just beginning about how messages around food influence our brains and decision-making. This research can potentially allow us to think rationally, instead of just following the elephant. Food Bullying is designed to help you with that, and provides steps to train your rational brain.