Science says that you
make most of your decisions unconsciously means you can clearly understand it
by following the below example.
You are thinking of
buying a TV. You do some research
on what TV to buy and then you go online to purchase one. What factors are
involved in this decision making process?
It’s not what you think — I cover this topic in my book Neuro
Web Design: What makes them click? You like to think that when you make a
decision you have carefully and logically weighed all the relevant factors. In
the case of the TV, you have considered the size of TV that works best in your
room, the brand that you have read is the most reliable, the competitive price,
whether you should get blu-ray, etc etc. But the research on decision-making,
especially the recent research, shows that although you want to think that your
decision-making is a conscious, deliberate process, it’s not. Most decisions
are made through unconscious mental processing.
Unconscious decision-making includes factors
such as:
What are most other people buying (social
validation): “I see that a particular TV got high ratings and reviews at the
website”
What will make me stay consistent in my
persona (commitment): “I’m the kind of person that always has the latest thing,
the newest technology.”
Do I have any obligations or social debts that
I can pay off with this purchase (reciprocity): “My brother has had me over to
his house all year to watch the games, I think it’s time we had them over to
our place to watch”
and on and on.
Don’t Confuse Unconscious with Irrational or
Bad. I take exception
with Dan Ariely and his book, Predictably Irrational. Most of our mental
processing is unconscious, and most of our decision-making is unconscious, but
that doesn’t mean it’s faulty, irrational or bad. We are faced with an
overwhelming amount of data (11,000,000 pieces of data come into the brain
every second!) and our conscious minds can’t process all of that. Our
unconscious has evolved to process most of the data and to make decisions for
us according to guidelines and rules of thumb that are in our best interest
most of the time. This is the genesis of “trusting your gut”, and most of the
time it works!
So What To Do? — The next step is to think about what
this means for people who design things like websites, where you are providing
information and/or engaging customers to make a decision. This is, of course,
the topic of my book, but let’s hear from you. If we know that people are
making decisions unconsciously, rather than consciously, what are some
strategies we should employ at the website to encourage them to engage?
And for those of you who like to read, great
books on this topic are:
·
How We Decide by Jonah
Lehrer — The BEST book on the topic of decision-making in general.
·
Strangers to
Ourselves: The adaptive unconscious by Timothy Wilson — A little bit more
academic, but still a great book.
·
The Paradox of Choice
by Barry Schwartz
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1218571
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