Given the Time and the Money to Think, Consumers will Rely more on Intuition, Sensations, and Emotions, rather than Rationale, to Decide

Abstract

The weight of intuitive, sensory, emotional, and rational criteria in consumer decision making has been debated for ages, we could say. The rational model dominated Marketing all through the 20th Century, but on the onset of the new millennium, the case has been made, and strongly so, for a more integrated view of consumer behavior, that allows for, if you will, the rationalization of emotional conducts. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment that shows that purchases are not all that rational, and that –indeed– given the time, and the money to think it through, consumers will paradoxically rely more on their intuition, their emotions and sensations, that is, on feelings over rational criteria, to arrive at a purchase decision. This experiment manipulated two variables, time and money, using a convenience sample of undergraduate students in three classes of Pace University, NY, to apply the same situational questionnaire under two different hypothetical scenarios, where one is similar to the students’ current situation.