Previous research and daily life experience suggest that it is necessary to think deliberately and make tradeoffs between benefits and costs to make optimal options. But decision-makers are not always able to make good decisions with conscious thought in a variety of decision-making situations. Past studies have found that decision-makers make better choice with unconscious thought when facing complex decision-making. Dijksterhuis(2004)put forward the unconscious thought theory(UTT), which inverted the traditional view that " a good result comes only after deliberation consideration”. Unconscious thought refers to object-relevant or task-relevant cognitive or affective thought processes that occur while conscious attention is directed elsewhere. The unconscious thought theory comprises several principles:(1)capacity principle;(2)bottom-up versus top-down principle;(3)weighting principle;(4)rules principle. Compared with conscious thought, unconscious thought has relative advantages in complex decision-making which needs to integrate vast information. Relevant research has explored the impact of unconscious thought on decision-making, impression formation, attitude formation and change, problem solving, and creativity. Does unconscious thought also work when consumers face complex decisions? This paper systematically combs the influence of unconscious thought on consumers’ complex decision-making and its mechanism from three stages: goal pursuit, selection process and post-choice evaluation. We find that the advantages of unconscious thought on consumers’ complex decision-making emerge in every stage of the decision-making process: unconscious thought makes it easier for consumers to identify the consumption target before making decisions by reducing the difficulty of target matching process and increasing the difference between options; it enables consumers to judge fast and correctly, which is closely related to the better information processing capacity of unconscious thought in decision-making. Due to the bottom-up principle, and global information processing, unconscious thought can reduce the inconsistent preferences after consumers’ decision-making and improve post-decision satisfaction. Although unconscious thought has advantages in complex decision-making, such effects still have boundary conditions. Individual differences among consumers and objective characteristics of the consumption situation will have an impact on the advantage effect of unconscious thought. Among them, consumers’ cognitive characteristics and their consumption purposes will significantly affect unconscious thought. In addition, the consumption type and the quality of consumer information are also important boundary conditions that affect unconscious thought. At last, the paper further puts forward the practical enlightenment to consumers and merchants based on the principle of unconscious thought, suggests that it is necessary to pay attention to the impact of unconscious thought on consumers’ complex decision-making under massive information environment of the internet, and further explores the dynamic coupling of unconscious and conscious thought in complex decision-making of consumers.
/ Journals / Foreign Economics & Management
Foreign Economics & Management
LiZengquan, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YinHuifang HeXiaogang LiuJianguo, Vice Editor-in-Chief
Make It Simple: A Review on Unconscious Thought and Consumer Complex Decision-Making
Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 41, Issue 03, pp. 98 - 110 (2019) DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2019.03.007
Summary
References
Summary
[1] Li A M, Chen C X, Sun H L, et al. A literature review of story marketing from a perspective of improving consumer experience[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2017, 39(9): 70-82.
[2] Li J S, Wang D, Shen M W. The unconscious thought: Theory, queries and responses[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2016, 39(2): 318-323.
[3] Liu L X, Cai Xuan,Yuan X X.Unconscious-thought effects take place off-line, not on-line[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2012, 35(5): 1159-1163.
[4] Liu N, Li A M, Ding H, et al. The more, the better or going too far is as bad as not going far enough? A literature review of choice overload and consumer decision-making behavior[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2017, 39(9): 70-82.
[5] Xia Y, Zhang C, Yuan X X. The predicaments and prospects of the research on unconscious thought effect[J]. Psychological Research, 2014, 7(2): 3-8.
[6] Abadie M, Villejoubert G, Waroquier L, et al. The interplay between presentation material and decision mode for complex choice preferences[J]. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2013, 25(6): 682-691.
[7] Babin B J, Darden W R, Griffin M. Work and/or fun: Measuring hedonic and utilitarian shopping value[J]. Journal of Consumer Research, 1994, 20(4): 644-656.
[8] Betsch T, Plessner H, Schwieren C, et al. I like it but I don’t know why: A value-account approach to implicit attitude formation[J]. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2001, 27(2): 242-253.
[9] Bos M W, Dijksterhuis A, Van Baaren R B. On the goal-dependency of unconscious thought[J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2008, 44(4): 1114-1120.
[10] Bos M W, Dijksterhuis A. Unconscious thought works bottom-up and conscious thought works top-down when forming an impression[J]. Social Cognition, 2011, 29(6): 727-737.
[11] Bos M W, Dijksterhuis A, Van Baaren R. Food for thought? Trust your unconscious when energy is low[J]. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics, 2012, 5(2): 124-130.
[12] Dijksterhuis A. Think different: The merits of unconscious thought in preference development and decision making[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004, 87(5): 586-598.
[13] Dijksterhuis A, Bos M W, Nordgren L F, et al. On making the right choice: The deliberation-without-attention effect[J]. Science, 2006, 311(5763): 1005-1007.
[14] Dijksterhuis A, Meurs T. Where creativity resides: The generative power of unconscious thought[J]. Consciousness and Cognition, 2006, 15(1): 135-146.
[15] Dijksterhuis A, Strick M. A case for thinking without consciousness[J]. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2016, 11(1): 117-132.
[16] Gao J, Zhang C, Wang K, et al. Understanding online purchase decision making: The effects of unconscious thought, information quality, and information quantity[J]. Decision Support Systems, 2012, 53(4): 772-781.
[17] Garrison K E, Handley I M. Not merely experiential: Unconscious thought can be rational[J]. Frontiers in Psychology, 2017, 8: 1096.
[18] Ham J, Van Den Bos K. On unconscious and conscious thought and the accuracy of implicit and explicit judgments[J]. Social Cognition, 2011, 29(6): 648-667.
[19] Hassin R R. Yes it can: On the functional abilities of the human unconscious[J]. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2013, 8(2): 195-207.
[20] Hu F P, Yu X, Chu H D, et al. Similar effects for resting state and unconscious thought: Both solve multi-attribute choices better than conscious thought[J]. Frontiers in Psychology, 2018, 9: 1360.
[21] Laran J, Janiszewski C, Salerno A. Exploring the differences between conscious and unconscious goal pursuit[J]. Journal of Marketing Research, 2016, 53(3): 442-458.
[22] Lerouge D. Evaluating the benefits of distraction on product evaluations: The mind-set effect[J]. Journal of Consumer Research, 2009, 36(3): 367-379.
[23] Marien H, Custers R, Hassin R R, et al. Unconscious goal activation and the hijacking of the executive function[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2012, 103(3): 399-415.
[24] Messner C, Wänke M. Unconscious information processing reduces information overload and increases product satisfaction[J]. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011, 21(1): 9-13.
[25] Mukherjee S, Srinivasan N. Attention in preferential choice[J]. Progress in Brain Research, 2013, 202: 117-134.
[26] Newell B R, Shanks D R. Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review[J]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2014, 37(1): 1-19.
[27] Nieuwenstein M R, Wierenga T, Morey R D, et al. On making the right choice: A meta-analysis and large-scale replication attempt of the unconscious thought advantage[J]. Judgment and Decision Making, 2015, 10(1): 1-17.
[28] Nordgren L F, Bos M W, Dijksterhuis A. The best of both worlds: Integrating conscious and unconscious thought best solves complex decisions[J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011, 47(2): 509-511.
[29] Payne J W, Samper A, Bettman J R, et al. Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making[J]. Psychological Science, 2008, 19(11): 1118-1123.
[30] Reinhard M A, Greifeneder R, Scharmach M. Unconscious processes improve lie detection[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2013, 105(5): 721-739.
[31] Soto D, Mäntylä T, Silvanto J. Working memory without consciousness[J]. Current Biology, 2011, 21(22): R912-R913.
[32] Strick M, Dijksterhuis A, Bos M W, et al. A meta-analysis on unconscious thought effects[J]. Social Cognition, 2011, 29(6): 738-762.
[33] Tversky A, Kahneman D. Rational choice and the framing of decisions[A]. Karpak B, Zionts S. Multiple criteria decision making and risk analysis using microcomputers[C]. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 1989.
[34] Usher M, Russo Z, Weyers M, et al. The impact of the mode of thought in complex decisions: Intuitive decisions are better[J]. Frontiers in Psychology, 2011, 2: 37.
[35] Van Knippenberg D, Dahlander L, Haas M R, et al. Information, attention, and decision making[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2015, 58(3): 649-657.
[36] Vieira M H, Araujo C F, Sampaio C H. Unconscious thought theory and marketing: A novel perspective for new insights[J]. CBR-Consumer Behavior Review, 2017, 1(1): 11-23.
[37] Whitley S C, Trudel R, Kurt D. The influence of purchase motivation on perceived preference uniqueness and assortment size choice[J]. Journal of Consumer Research, 2018, 45(4): 710-724.
[38] Wilson T D, Schooler J W. Thinking too much: Introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1991, 60(2): 181-192.
[39] Zhou J F, Zhou C P, Li J S, et al. Cognitive style modulates conscious but not unconscious thought: Comparing the deliberation-without-attention effect in analytics and wholists[J]. Consciousness and Cognition, 2015, 36: 54-60.
Cite this article
He Yingwei, Li Aimei, Sun Hailong, et al. Make It Simple: A Review on Unconscious Thought and Consumer Complex Decision-Making[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2019, 41(3): 98-110.
Export Citations as:
For
ISSUE COVER
RELATED ARTICLES