Ep. 11 : Why Do People Buy? The Cognitive Science of Purchasing – Dectech Discusses

Welcome to Dectech’s podcast, Predicting People! In our eleventh episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss the vast field of consumer decision making. In particular, they talk about why people buy the products they do and explore how advertising, brand perceptions, cognitive biases and flexible preferences influence our purchasing behaviour. 

The insights discussed suggest that consumer decision making can be surprisingly simple, and despite large global spending on advertising, consumers may not hold such deep brand perceptions as we may assume. Rather than having stable brand images, consumers seem to react to specific events and post-rationalise their choices and preferences. Using examples from the cognitive science literature, Nick and Henry highlight the importance of testing real behaviour and experimentation beyond self-report to inform marketing strategies and our understanding of our customers.