Article2017

Consumers (and Consumer Researchers) Need Conscious Thinking in Addition to Unconscious Processes: A Call for Integrative Models, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman

Roy Frederick Baumeister · Connie J. Clark

21 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Consumer Research

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Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics Consumer Behavior and Marketing Influence Consumer Behavior and Market Dynamics

Abstract

We suggest consumer research develop an integrative approach that favors neither unconscious nor conscious processes but rather appreciates the contributions and limitations of both, and how they work together. We agree that unconscious processes precede all conscious ones, but we argue that conscious thinking plays a prominent and likely indispensible role in much of consumer behavior. Conscious thought is particularly useful for logical reasoning, quantification (including about money), and communication, all of which are relevant to consumer behavior. We argue that most human behavior is produced by an interactive combination of conscious and unconscious causes and that favoring one over the other will yield an overly simplistic understanding of consumer behavior. Pragmatic and ethical concerns also argue for retaining a strong interest in conscious processes among consumers.

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References

1891The Principles of Psychology 2000The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition 1999Dual-process theories in social psychology 2014A Natural History of Human Thinking 1997The automaticity of everyday life.2014Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review 2006Dual Processing in Reasoning 1992Thinking is for doing: Portraits of social cognition from Daguerreotype to laserphoto.

Cited by

2019Unravelling the intellectual discourse of implicit consumer cognition: A bibliometric review 2022The Role of Information Overload on Consumers’ Online Shopping Behavior 2019The role of ethical problems related to a brand in the purchasing decision process: An analysis of the moderating effect of complexity of purchase and mediation of perceived social risk 2019The implicit sensory association test (ISAT): A measurement approach for sensory perception 2017How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman

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