People’s motivations are not easy to ascertain. They don’t prefer products just because of functional advantages. Often they are not even consciously aware why they prefer a particular product or brand. To explore these underlying social and emotional preferences, we need to frame questions differently and tap into people’s subconscious, the System 1 thinking described in behavioral science.

With System 1 research techniques, we can reveal the full range of jobs consumers are hiring a product to do. These techniques capture how the automatic System 1 brain operates differently to the conscious System 2 brain. This could involve capturing response time when answering forced choice questions or using visual projective techniques that activate the non-conscious visual communication system.