Judging, fast and slow

I had a bit of an epiphany last week.

When I was at client I used to urge my team to judge ideas by reacting like a consumer, as opposed to thinking like one. This was rooted in a belief I have that marketers routinely over-estimate how much time consumers actually spend thinking about brands.  

Well, last week I had a fascinating chat with a neuroscience research expert that lent some substance to this belief. Building on the theories of Daniel Kahneman, he talked about the challenges of adapting research to reflect the fact that most of our decision-making uses the more subconscious and intuitive System 1 mode of thinking rather than the slower and more deliberate System 2. In essence he was encouraging researchers to avoid a System 2 response by asking people what they think, and instead proposing that they show them some stimulus and use techniques like EEG (Electroencephalography) to gauge their instantaneous reaction.

In other words, the fewer questions and less time, the better.

And as I reflected on this, it struck me that this could go some way to explaining a curious phenomenon I’ve observed since moving agency side. Good clients are noticeable in giving an immediate instinctive response to ideas they really like (as opposed to those that behave as if they are playing poker!). But what can often follow is noticeably cooler feedback via email, and then a protracted cycle of ‘can you just think about…?’ requests. And this got me wondering if this pattern - the way a more positive initial reaction is replaced by a more considered and somewhat cooler deconstruction of the work - could be explained by an initial System 1 response being usurped by a subsequent System 2 response?

And because we’re taught that considered logic is always better than an instinctive response, the latter tends to get consigned to history as a rash and unhelpfully giddy response to the work.

But here’s the rub.

This faster, more instinctive response could actually be more valuable than a more considered view because it better reflects the reality of how people will actually consume the idea. Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to critique an idea, but I would encourage people to value and hold on to their initial response more. To write it down and keep ‘warming their hands’ on it as they consider whether to press ‘Go’.

Read more from Phil in our Clubhouse.

(Feature image courtesy of Max Replica.)