Researching implicit memory: Get to the truth

Nichola Kent-Lemon Admap May 2013

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Researching implicit memory: Get to the truth Nichola Kent-Lemon Admap May 2013

Researching implicit memory: Get to the truth

Nichola Kent-Lemon Northstar There is a view that the results of market research are skewed because people respond using their rational, explicit memory when most decision-making is implicit and instinctive. So how is traditional research evolving to get to the real truth?

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How will my customers react to my new product portfolio? What could persuade customers to use my services? Why is my product not hitting its sales targets? These are difficult questions, and the success of every new product or service depends on the answers. The truth about what motivates consumers to behave as they do is of huge importance to salesmen, marketers, product developers and business owners alike. But how can we get to this truth? Much has been written about the extent to which market research can access the truth behind consumer motivations and so make accurate predictions about likely future behaviour or attitudes. Many researchers see accessing implicit or subconscious decision-making as the Holy Grail in decoding these consumer motivations; but the sticking point remains that direct measurement of the implicit and instinctive lies firmly in the domain of neuroscience, outside the budgets and time restraints of the average consumer research project. However, as the past century of psychology has shown us, neuroscience does not offer the only tools at our disposal. Careful observation of behaviour patterns has allowed psychologists to shed light on some truly fascinating rules and quirks of implicit decision-making without going near a brain scan, electrode or test tube. The power of deduction in forming testable theories to explain behaviour should not be underestimated. Indeed, it is only through observation of real behaviour that the effect of context can truly be seen. This is something that most
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neuroscience research struggles to replicate it is, after all, difficult to accurately measure physiological responses, or take a brain scan without interrupting or removing the natural context in which that response would usually occur.

The power of deduction Through observation and deduction alone, psychology, sociology and behavioural economics have revealed a multitude of implicit heuristics or cognitive biases in the way we process information. This insight is invaluable in helping market researchers understand why consumers will often behave differently to the way we, or even they themselves, would have logically expected or hypothesised. Overt, rational decision-making is an effortful process, and given the sheer number of decisions we make in getting through an average day, implicit heuristics are of huge importance in maximising the speed and efficiency of our decisions, bypassing the need for constant rational analysis. One of the most common cognitive biases seen in decision-making is the Status Quo Bias (Figure 1). This relates to our implicit need to stick with what we are used to. We are more motivated to minimise loss than we are to maximise gain. Therefore, even when there are clear benefits to making a change, we hold back on the basis that we do not want to lose what we have already, thereby maintaining the status quo.

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Figure 1 For example, if you were to ask someone why they return time and again to the same holiday destination, even when there are multiple alternatives offering a less temperamental climate, more space or better facilities, they will likely answer, 'we know we can have a good time here, so why make a change?' They are not willing to risk losing what they have despite every indication that there are alternatives with more to offer. This has important implications for market research. When predicting future behaviour most of us assume that we will act rationally. Therefore, when asking someone how likely they would be to purchase a product that has clear advantages over their usual choice, most will say 'very likely'. It is only through studying behaviour that we discover the reality of consumers' tendency to hold onto what they know, ignoring the benefits of alternatives. Armed with this insight into implicit consumer decision-making, it is possible for businesses to capitalise on this irrational consumer quirk. This is illustrated in the success that Apple has in selling multiple updates for a single device. Why is it that consumers are repeatedly willing to part with large amounts of money for an updated version of a product they already have? Apple understands that, as a customer, I am more likely to make a change when the potential for loss is minimised, believing, 'I will still have all the benefits of my current device but I will also have all the latest innovations.' The importance of emotion While studying behaviour can reveal the occurrence of non-rational heuristics or implicit decision-making, the cause of this deviation from the rational is not always obvious. Given the sub-conscious nature of these implicit decisions, we cannot simply ask the consumer for their reasoning, so how can we unpick the underlying motivators? According to prominent neurobiologist Antonio Damasio, the key to implicit decision-making is the emotional value we attach to the various options involved in a decision. Put simply, Damasio uses the Somatic Marker Hypothesis to explain that when complicated decisions are put under time pressure or there are simply too many options to weigh up, we subconsciously default to the decision that has the most positive emotional associations. Implicit heuristics could, therefore, be described as emotional short cuts used to deal with the multiple decisions we make every minute of every day, when time and energy do not allow for a fully conscious and logical analysis.
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These emotional heuristics include:

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Emotional associations with good and bad relevant past experiences. The emotional state we are in at the time of decision-making. Imagined emotional responses to potential future outcomes depending on the option we choose; that is, we are able to imagine ourselves in future situations resulting from the decision we make and replicate the emotions we expect to feel in these situations.

So if we take the earlier example of someone choosing to return to the same holiday destination many times (Figure 2), adhering to the status quo bias, we can use Antonio Damasio's theory to hypothesise about the emotions driving this decision.

Figure 2 The lengthy process of weighing up the many potential holiday options, combined with pressure to make a quick choice on behalf of others, is likely to have resulted in abandonment of conscious rational comparisons. This would cause the protagonist to rely instead on quick emotional heuristics, whereby the combination of a stressed emotional state, positive emotional associations with tried-and-tested past experiences and fear of disappointment associated with trying something new, will likely lead to a decision to maintain the status quo, returning to the usual holiday destination. The wider context The extent to which our decisions are either conscious or implicit differs widely from one decision to the next. Important decisions or big ticket purchases, such as buying a house or a vehicle, will almost always involve a large degree of conscious thought in exploring the options available and the practical and personal advantages and disadvantages they encapsulate.
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This makes sense given that it is more worthwhile to expend time and energy when a decision has long-term, large-scale personal implications. However, even for these decisions, some implicit decision making is likely to play a part, and we will often move back and forth between the two processes as the decision progresses. For example, if you are buying a new home and are undecided about where to buy, there may be a very large number of locations that it would make sense to investigate, but often a shortlist will be determined quickly based on the emotional pull of a minority of options. A prolonged stage of conscious processing of each short list option will likely follow. By contrast, minor decisions, with limited personal impact will often be largely implicit and emotional for the sake of efficiency. For example, when choosing from a restaurant menu with little variation between prices, unless you are on a specific diet, your choice will often be a quick decision based on what you have chosen in the past, your current mood and the imagined future emotions associated with choosing each option, such as discomfort in relation to a spicy dish. A full-scale rational comparison of each dish would be unusual, although not unheard of. Revealing implicit decision-making without neuroscience The explosion of mobile technology and social media has meant that accessing realtime behaviour and emotion is becoming an increasing possibility, and harnessing these new technologies to reveal the truth behind consumer motivations is well within reach. Traditionally, ethnography involves the detailed study of the lives and behaviours of a limited number of carefully selected participants. This allows researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of the context of their research subject, and provides a window into the real-life emotions and practical issues that can change the course of the behaviour and decisions they are researching. However, despite its obvious suitability to researching the context and emotions involved in decision-making, traditional ethnography has some drawbacks. Studies are limited to the amount of time a researcher has to spend with participants, and are often pared down to a single visit to a participants' home, to hear a verbal account of daily life with reference to home surroundings. Full-scale observations of life as it happens are rare. Self-ethnography offers a practical alternative to overcome this problem. While traditionally, participants in research studies areseenasnavetestsubjects,self-ethnography suggests that it is possible to educate participants to observe and report their own behaviour and emotions with as little bias as possible. With the use of mobile technology, participants can report their observations in real time so they do not become distorted by inaccuracies of memory or post-rationalisation. Dedicated online platforms or social media accounts can be used to aggregate uploads from participants, in the form of written observations, photographs or films, and automated surveys can be programmed to pop up on mobile devices at certain intervals to measure real time emotion and behaviour. The potential for data collection in this way is huge, and with no need for research venues to be hired or even for researchers themselves to be present, associated costs can also be minimised, making self-ethnography a practical as well as an innovative solution. While it may be possible for consumers to report current emotional states, accessing sub-conscious emotional associations

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with past experiences or imagined future situations is more difficult. Verbal explanations are associated with rationality and conscious analytical thought, and as such do not provide a suitable medium. However, there are many projective or enabling techniques which can be used to address this problem. Projective techniques are so called because they allow emotions or responses to be projected through specifically designed metaphorical exercises, characters or imagery that facilitate emotional rather than logical responses. Mood boards and collages are two commonly used techniques that can successfully access emotion via imagery. Collages are most useful for exploratory research, and can be built by participants from images chosen at random, for example from magazines, allowing complete freedom to express emotion. Alternatively, mood boards will most often employ a set of predetermined images, with participants tasked to identify which of the images are most relevant. Although the more directive approach of mood boards limits the extent to which participants can express their unique reactions and emotions, it is more practical in terms of time, and allows greater scope for direct comparison between participants. While it is important that initial responses are non-verbal, once an image has been chosen it must always be explained. Otherwise we are left with an image that could represent an almost limitless range of emotions, for example, a sunset could represent finality, happiness, or even sense of insignificance. Therefore, imagery is used as a tool to anchor verbal explanations to the intuitive and non-rational, not as a standalone representation of emotion. Conclusions It is clear that for any given decision, there are a very large number of personal and situational factors that are of importance in determining the course of action taken. Situational factors can be understood by living the experience of decision-making through behavioural and contextual self-reporting or observation. While personal factors, determining the emotions tied up in our decisions, must be understood through exercises and projections specifically designed to bypass conscious rationalisation. Neuroscience research has been invaluable in helping us understand the importance of emotion and context in decisionmaking. However, we need not be reliant on neuroscience to understand the mechanics of a specific set of decisions in order to inform a sales or marketing strategy. It could indeed be argued that the haphazard, changeable nature of consumer choice invites a less clinical, more holistic approach, to capture the full set of underlying motivators at work. The truth is out there, and by applying what we know about our often less-than-rational decision making to a well-thought-out methodology, it should be possible for us to get to the heart of it, outside the laboratory.

About the Author Nichola Kent-Lemon is a qualitative specialist at market research consultancy Northstar. Her expertise includes the application of social psychology in developing research methods. nkent-lemon@northstarhub.com

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