WHY WE ARE ALWAYS IN TWO MINDS!
23rd July 2010
By Jez Groom
Edwards Groom Saunders
Have you ever wondered why sometimes you make a snap decision only to regret it hours later?
Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t make your mind up on what to do and in the end you just think, ‘What the heck, I’ll go with the flow’?
Well don’t worry yourself, you’re very normal but your decision making is often irrational and that makes you even more normal.
Professor Paul Dolan from the London School of Economics visited ENGINE this month* and talked passionately about the importance of a new field of scientific understanding – behavioural economics.
Apparently, in our heads we have two distinct but linked thinking systems which help us make everyday decisions in life.
The first is our automatic system: it’s very fast, it’s our ‘autopilot’ and it helps us make hundreds of unconscious everyday decisions in life – it’s often compared to Homer Simpson in its ability to make quick and lazy mental shortcuts, in order to make our life easier.
The second is our reflective system: it’s far slower, more reflective, conscious and controlled.
This is the Dr Spock part of our minds – far more rational and weighing up the pros and cons of a decision before making them.
Unfortunately for us all, whilst we may think that we behave like Dr Spock, our minds often default to Homer Simpson without us really knowing or acknowledging the fact.
To date marketers and their agencies have focussed their thinking on simply changing minds.
New evidence suggests that the most effective interventions are ones that quite literally seek to change minds AND change behaviour at the same time.
Watch the clip to hear more from the experts!
* Professor Paul Dolan is an academic partner of ENGINE Decisions, a new behavioural sciences unit that helps clients profit from better decision making
Image from toothpastefordinner.com
