For a long time, management and industrial engineering have viewed human behaviour as being predominantly rational. Classical economic models are based on the assumption of informed decisions, linear evaluations and stable preferences. However, over the past few decades, evidence from neuroscience, cognitive psychology and behavioural economics has unequivocally shown that decisions relating to consumption, investment or work are deeply influenced by emotional processes, which are often unconscious.
Against this backdrop, the BRIEL - Behavioural Research in Immersive Environment Lab, was established at the Politecnico di Milano. The lab focuses on studying emotions and decision-making processes in immersive and controlled environments. Using methodologies from applied neuroscience, virtual reality and behavioural analysis, alongside intensive psychometric tools such as focus groups and ethnographic observation, the lab aims to understand how individuals respond to products, content, professional relationships, negotiations, environments and technologies.
The aim is to measure what is usually invisible: attention, emotional engagement, cognitive effort, and the decision-making dynamics that precede a choice.
BRIEL was founded within the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano as part of the HumanTech – Humans and Technology project (MUR-“Departments of Excellence 2023–2027” initiative). The lab has a strongly interdisciplinary orientation, positioned at the intersection of marketing analytics, behavioural science and experience engineering. It is equipped with advanced technology that enables increasingly precise observation of human behaviour. This includes EEG (electroencephalography), which measures brain activity to analyse attention, cognitive load and emotional engagement, as well as eye-tracking systems that track gaze patterns to reveal what people look at, for how long and in what sequence. Virtual reality and immersive environments recreate realistic contexts, enabling the study of human responses under controlled experimental conditions. This is all embedded within an advanced behavioural analytics framework that integrates physiological, behavioural and digital data to build models that can describe, explain and predict decisions.
The study of emotions is not merely an academic curiosity; it has become a strategic issue across many managerial and engineering disciplines. In industrial economics, markets are becoming increasingly saturated, with functional differences between products diminishing. Consequently, competition is shifting towards experience and perceived meaning. Understanding how people respond emotionally to a product, brand, pitch, investment opportunity or environment is essential for designing offerings that are truly differentiated.
In management, the growing importance of customer experience necessitates new tools for understanding actual human behaviour. From advertising communication to digital interface design and from retail experience to media consumption, managerial decisions are increasingly dependent on the ability to interpret subtle signals of attention, interest and engagement. At the same time, the dynamics of negotiation and collaboration — within and across teams and functions — are becoming critical success factors, making the study of their underlying drivers essential. In the field of industrial engineering, the study of emotions is becoming increasingly important for designing complex socio-technical systems. Products, digital platforms, work environments and services are not just technical artefacts; they provide lived experiences. Integrating behavioural and emotional data into design processes enables the development of solutions that are more effective, intuitive and sustainable.
One of BRIEL’s key objectives is to build a bridge between academic research and industrial applications. The lab collaborates with companies, institutions, and media organisations to study phenomena such as attention to advertising and editorial content, the effectiveness of immersive experiences, product and packaging design, retail and digital environment design, the emotional impact of new technologies, and the role of artificial intelligence — particularly generative AI — on work, perceived self-efficacy, and relationships among individuals, organisations, and even between caregivers and patients. Through controlled experiments and advanced data analysis, BRIEL transforms managerial intuition into empirical evidence, providing practical tools to improve strategic decision-making and innovation processes.
In an economy that is increasingly data-driven and dependent on intelligent technologies, understanding human behaviour is becoming a vital skill. Digital platforms, artificial intelligence and immersive environments are multiplying interactions between people and technological systems. In this context, the ability to measure and interpret attention, emotions and decision-making processes is one of the new frontiers of management research.
BRIEL was created with precisely this ambition: to develop new methods for studying human experience and to train researchers and managers who can integrate behavioural data, neuroscience and analytics into decision-making processes.
Ultimately, even in the most technologically advanced economies, decisions are made by human beings. Understanding their emotions is therefore becoming increasingly important for designing innovation, value, and competitiveness.