Monthly Archives: August 2013

Recently I was reading some research about how people respond differently depending on timescales. Researchers at Princeton gauged people’s reactions when they were offered a choice between receiving a $15 Amazon voucher today, or a $20 one in the future (two or four weeks later).  $15           $20 Now         Later Rationally the response should be the same – none of the participants was actively seeking an Amazon voucher, they didn’t need one at that moment in time, so why not wait and get the larger amount in a couple of weeks, right? In my experience it’s almost always a mistake to think that consumers will make rational decisions; when it comes to consumer behaviour they rarely do. So what did the research find and what are the potential implications? What was revealing was the way in which people’s brains reacted to the alternatives: scans showed that the chance to […]

As a consumer behaviour expert I’m very wary of consumer research and that includes opinion polls. I can see that a huge amount of human behaviour is unconsciously driven and just because we can come up with reasons for our past or intended actions doesn’t mean these rational justifications are accurate. David W. Moore spent many years working for the polling organisation Gallup as a senior editor. His analysis of opinion polls provides many reasons why we should be concerned about quantitative consumer research in general. Beyond the general issue of unrepresentative samples he reveals how different approaches to polling produce dramatically different results. The complex questions prior to the reported opinion prime respondents to answer in a particular way. One poll asking about support for oil drilling in the Alaska’s wildlife refuge found the public opposed to it by a margin of 17 percentage points. Another poll conducted within […]

Before you go any further, please take a look at this colour changing card trick from Richard Wiseman. This video is another demonstration of inattentional blindness – you’re probably aware of the video with the gorilla dancing in the middle of the basketball game – showing that it is perfectly possible for someone to be physically looking at something and not consciously process significant information. This is one of the reasons that consumer research using eye tracking equipment is potentially misleading. Just because someone has looked at something doesn’t tell you what they’ve mentally processed. [The other big problem is that attaching special glasses to someone and then asking them to go and “consume” is not a recipe for normal behaviour.] Inattentional blindness was of particular interest to psychologists wanting to understand air accidents: with all the information available in a cockpit they realised it’s very easy for a pilot […]

Car manufacturers are always trying to solve a conundrum; how do you make a small car feel less small? Everyone knows that big cars are associated with all the positive stuff; power, comfort, luxury, status, indulgence. Small cars are associated with practicality, frugality, compromise, convenience.  Worthy, certainly. But truly desirable? To overcome this car manufacturers do one of two things. They make small cars physically bigger until they reach a point where no one can pretend it’s still a small car. Then, at some point, they have to bring out a new model that really is small again. Or else their marketing tells us that their small car is really a big car in a small body so it’s OK to buy it and not feel bad. “Honestly”, they say, “you’ll never realise that this car is small once you’re inside.” Of course no one is suggesting that when they […]