What your customers can't say - consumer behavior

American Demographics, Feb, 1998 by David B. Wolfe

RESEARCH IS TOO RATIONAL

For years marketers have complained that consumers often indicate one thing in research, yet behave differently in the marketplace. But consumers are not pathological liars. They are split personalities, according to University of Iowa neurologist Antonio Damasio. To be more specific, their decisions are split by the functions of reason and emotion.

Damasio's research shows that different brain sites and different mental processes are involved with different kinds of decision-making. We use one set of mental tools when we consider hypothetical matters, and another when we make personal decisions.

Emotions are triggered by changes in body states, according to Damasio. For example, when someone makes you angry: your face flushes while your heart pounds and stomach muscles tighten. Bodily functions also change when you see an old friend, enjoy a brilliant sunset, hear moving music, or sit down to an appetizing meal. According to Damasio, these changes in body states are essential to the production of emotions. And without emotions, we cannot make what Damasio calls "personally advantageous Decisions." Emotions tell us how relevant a matter is to our needs. Reason alone cannot

Damasio studies people who suffer from a condition that makes them similar to "Star Trek's" Mr. Spock. Brain lesions have wiped out their secondary emotions, which are critical to socially adaptable behavior. Reason is the only tool they have when they need to figure something out. One might think that this kind of brain damage would lead a person to make better decisions. After all, we are taught early in life that the best decisions are usually free of emotional taint. But Damasio's research indicates otherwise.

When presented with hypothetical issues, Damasio's patients experience no unusual difficulties. But when a matter directly involves them, problem-solving becomes difficult. Even deciding what to wear or when to make a doctor's appointment becomes a challenging act of mind.

Reason is qualitatively value free, according to Damasio. It does not operate to make decisions, but to analyze choices, assist in perceiving reality, and construct possibilities. Reason may help you recognize the tree you are looking at in a nursery and determine if it will fit in your garden, but you need emotions to understand the personal benefits that will accrue if you take the tree home. You also need emotion to decide whether or not the price is fair.

Emotions have a powerful effect on our consumer choices, because they push us toward decisions we think are best for us. We often bypass reason when making these decisions because experience endows us with what Damasio calls "somatic markers." Somatic markers are like computer shortcuts that incorporate many keystrokes into one or two. They exist in inherited behavior traits or are formed by experience. They are pre-recorded behavior guides that can be instantly accessed and played back to assist in making new decisions. They often make reason irrelevant to decision-making.