Read posts written by Aaron Reid on Sentient Decision Science’s implicit market research blog.
Consumers will drive 20 minutes across town to save $7 on a $20 pen, but won’t drive 20 minutes across town to save $7 on a $500 suit. Isn’t seven dollars, seven dollars?
Restaurant patrons will be less satisfied with their dinners if they’ve ordered aloud within a group of friends than if they place their orders privately. Why do we sacrifice a sensual experience for the projection of our image to our friends?
“Economic Unrest is Shifting Electoral Battlegrounds” – front page headline New York Times, Sunday October 5th. The trouble with this headline lies in the meaning of what the word “is” is. “Is” indicates causality in this case, and is clearly spoken out of turn. The article claims that the cause of the recent turn […]
If expectational influence on subsequent judgment were ever on public display, we saw it in nearly every analyst on television Thursday evening following the Vice Presidential debate. Sarah Palin’s performance in the debate was much better than what we saw in the clips from the Katie Couric interview. But really, where was there to go, […]
At Sentient, we talk of a human behavioral driver we call “bleeding needs”. This represents an extension of a motivational phenomenon recently dubbed “reverse allesthesia” in the academic literature. Reverse allesthesia suggests that a sample of a good will increase the motivational drive to consume more of that good. In other words, a taste of […]
Barack Obama has won 8 straight states since Super Tuesday, including an unexpected sweep of the Chesapeake Primary. Some of these wins have been by 30 points or more. His “yes, we can” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY) video on you tube has more than 4 million hits. There is a tremendous emotional swell behind Barack that has even […]