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Emotions influences on decisionsIn another recent study, researchers offered consumers a choice between familiar beer and coffee products of similar quality and with similar attributes. In this case, the researchers were interested in strategies consumers would use to make a choice between similar products when the comparison is not well supported by a rational comparison of product features. Interestingly, products that were not chosen ‘lit up’ the brain region associated with the use of reasoning strategies. In this case, the authors suggest that when consumers applied a rational approach to evaluate products with no tangible differential advantage, these products were not favoured. In contrast, products that were eventually chosen ‘lit up’ the brain region linked to the use of emotional experience to guide decision-making. This region draws on the emotional value of previous experiences to subtly bias decision-making in future encounters. In this case, the authors suggest that emotional associations with the brand, developed either through exposure to marketing communications or actual experience, bias the product evaluation process or result in a preference for that brand most strongly associated with positive emotional cues. Note that the evaluation process involved comparison of nearly identical products, yet in this case, the decision was based on intangible brand-related factors. In sum, this fascinating research suggests that two very different types of thought processes underlie consumer decision-making: a reasoning chain which conducts a rational analysis of purchase factors; and an emotional chain which biases the decision-making process as a result of previous emotional experience. Source: University of Melbourne.
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