Help! My subconscious brain just overrode my conscious brain
Photo-by-Sarah-Elizabeth-on-Unsplash
HOW BUYING A COOKIE CAN EXPLAIN COGNITIVE FLUENCY (AND INCREASED BRAND INTERACTIONS)
Every morning after Jade dropped her son at nursery, she would stop at a local coffee shop and grab a coffee. Some days she grabbed a baked good; most days, it was just the coffee.
But one day, while walking from the nursery to the cafe she proactively decided that she would NOT get a baked good, remembering that she’d made a raw chocolate energy ball.
But something strange happened when she walked into the café. She saw they had peanut butter cookies. Before she knew it, she’d ordered a coffee and a cookie. It was only on walking home, clutching the coffee in one hand and the cookie bag in the other that she remembered her decision to do exactly the opposite of what she’d done.
System 1 versus system 2 decision making
What happened?
Her subconscious brain stepped in and overrode her conscious brain.
This is not unusual consumer behaviour. To use the parlance of the behavioural sciences, it was a system 1 moment (instinctual and emotional). She did not think about it at all; whereas her prior, rational decision was a system 2 moment.
According to research done at Cornell University, each day we make over 200 sub-conscious decisions about food (over 35,000 in total). Add to that the fact that our conscious mind can only process about 7 chunks of information at one point in time (Miller’s Law if you want if read more about it). It’s no wonder that her subconscious brain over-rode the slower processing power of her conscious mind. To read more about how our sub-conscious mind affects our decisions, take a look here.
The implications for consumer research
This makes researching decision-making very difficult, especially for low cost, seemingly insignificant purchases, like grocery shopping. As evidenced here, we cannot ask them what they plan to do, as they are likely to do something completely different (although, equally likely to genuinely believe that they will do what they plan to do.)
Should we, then, only speak with people who’ve already made the decision? In theory, yes.
However…
In the case of impulse purchases, asking them why they did what they did will also likely yield bogus results since so much of the decision is hidden below the surface.
Using Jade’s example, she could not explain for love nor money why she overrode her previous, rational decision in the moment.
Takeaway 1: do not trust consumers to explain their decisions as they may not know the answer themselves. Asking ‘why’ may yield fictitious insights. What to do instead?
Overcoming research challenges
Exploring Jade’s context further revealed the truth.
She shared that she needs to follow a gluten-free diet. The cafe in question didn’t have a very big gluten-free range but every now and then, they had peanut butter cookies which are gluten free and very delicious.
Suddenly, the subconscious decision starts to make sense. She was familiar with the cookie and had had good experiences with it. As a positive action she had performed multiple times, her memory was primed with the cookie; and subconscious memories have a strong influence on our outlook on life and ultimately over our decisions.
Furthermore, seeing the cookie and choosing to buy it was not a difficult choice. In fact, it was the opposite – it was easy, and with a low barrier to entry, she didn’t even need to think about it. Familiarity and assurance that there was no risk of a bad experience enabled her subconscious brain to override the conscious one.
The human truth: cognitive fluency
Coming back to the behavioural sciences, this is known as cognitive fluency. Cognitive fluency is the ease with which we process information. The easier it is (whether because the choice is presented simply, or because we’ve repeated the action often), the quicker the task can be completed, in this case make a purchasing decision. A common example of this is ordering the same thing off a menu.
Takeaway 2: If you’re looking for why your consumers behave the way they do, explore context, instead of asking consumers to rationalise their decision.
Overcoming cognitive fluency at the point-of-sale
Make every aspect of your consumer interaction as simple as possible and remove every possible barrier to purchase, for example consider:
availability and visibility on shelf
ease of navigation of your site
how easy it is to pronounce your brand name
how easy the font is to read
Where possible remove the risk of a bad experience - reviews, ratings and, in the B2B context, testimonials are all examples of this. Familiarity only works if someone is already a customer or client, but using social proof and showing how many other people/brands trust your company can go a long way to making prospects more confident in their decision to buy your product or service.
Understanding consumer decision making can be the difference between growth, stagnation and decline. Once you understand what’s driving decision making for your brand and in your category, you can respond with tactics that enable increased brand interactions.
And now that I know our subconscious is to blame for (some) impulse purchases, I know I’ll be more forgiving of myself next time I accidentally end up with a cookie.
