21: The Elusive Subconscious
Even today, neuroscience is being leveraged to reveal the subconscious mind of the consumer, in spite of the fact that there is no scientific evidence that such a thing exists, and the entire notion of subconscious is based on non-scientific theory and Vicary's hoax.
The argument of the subconscious is made when objective research has findings that are unpopular or undesirable. The notion that the majority of human actions cannot be explained and that "more than 90% of what we do is driven by the subconscious" is trotted out when research has revealed findings that do not satisfy the desires or expectations of the sponsor.
It is true that people often make decisions without fully reflecting on all the factors that may have influenced, between the need to make a decision quickly and the lack of understanding of the neurological process, the layman often cannot describe with accuracy and detail the factors that he considered.
The Subconsciousness And Religion
Claims for the subconscious are often based on specious reasoning, even when there is the scent of science about them: it is ultimately treated as a mystic force, unknown and unknowable. Those who cling to the notion assert that the subconscious mind is irrational, and cannot be explained in rational terms - it must simple be accepted and believed without further inquiry or examination.
Like religion, it is a matter of faith in the absence of fact. If you believe in a god, then you see his hand in everything and there is no common ground from which a believer and a non-believer because all their arguments, and even the way they interpret evidence, are based on premises that are entirely incompatible.
The metaphor can be taken further, as there are many among the subconscious camp who wish to preserve the notion of the subconscious mind, but call it by a different name - the non-conscious or the pre-conscious mind - to distance themselves from beliefs that have been debunked, yet maintain the core beliefs.
The notion of the non-conscious mind (we do things without conscious thinking) and the pre-conscious mind (we the lag between the time we perceive something and become explicitly aware of it) are more compelling, but they quite often stray into the territory which subconscious attempted to define (we act based on urges of which we are unaware and that contradict what we would have done had we been aware).
It also doesn't help that the notion of the subconscious has great popularity in popular psychology, particularly the "New Age" movement that uses fragments of science to legitimate mysticism, such that even sensible people are uncertain, and unable to distinguish fact from fabrication.
In the marketing profession, there are very few individuals who have much training in psychology, and their use of the term "subconscious" gives them away: it is used in discussions where the rational and measurable are to be discarded for the unexplainable and non-measurable. There are, however, many readers of pop-psychology and subscribers to mysticism who maintain the most irrational beliefs with religious fervor, galvanized against the interference of fact.
Unconscious Rationality
It is generally acceptable to consider the unconscious mind in the autonomic functions of the body: our heartbeat does not require conscious through and cannot be influenced by the rational mind. We can also consider many of the minute actions we undertake to be done largely without consciousness - to reach out and grasp something doesn't require concentration and focus on each muscle that causes our arm to move. We can even go so far as to state that the very decisions we make are based on much unconscious activity - an idea occurs to a person without a process of deliberation, reaction without reasoning.
This given, it's fair to say that only a small portion of the brain is involved in conscious decisions: we decide to walk to a shelf and pick up a product, and all the physical actions necessary to accomplish this seem to take care of themselves without a deliberate thought process.
However, rationality and consciousness are not the same thing, though they are intertwined they are not interchangeable, nor should we assume that they are inseparable.
For example, advertising philosophers talk about the difference between a rational and emotional appeal, and conclude that any purchase that does not involve a deliberate process of evaluation arises from unconscious emotional reasons. They do not give much consideration to the fact that there are also unconscious rational reasons.
The decision to repurchase a brand is not irrational; while we do not explicitly deliberate at the time, recalling past experience and reminding ourselves that the outcome was positive, it is for this rational reason, rather than emotional or subconscious urges, that we repurchase.
Likewise, the decision to try another brand is not irrational, but is based on a negative evaluation of past experiences - at some point, the brand we usually buy resulted in disappointment, leading us to seek an alternative. Again, we do not go through a process of deliberation, but neither is the notion to "try something different" entirely impulsive and emotional.
As such, people do not often deliberate over their buying decisions - and perhaps market researchers deliberate too much. Unable to accept the response that a subject selected a brand "because it's what I usually buy" or "because I felt like trying something new," they attempt to dig deeper to find the real motivation. In effect, they have rejected the real motivation, and their inquiry is in search of an entirely fictitious one that is more useful to their own purposes.
What Freud Said
The subconscious mind is often assumed to be based in psychology, primarily that of Sigmund Freud - but Freud himself rejected the notion of the subconscious mind. In 1815, he wrote, "We shall also be right in rejecting the term 'subconscious' as incorrect and misleading." He did not subscribe to the notion of there being a separate "subterranean" consciousness, though he did believe that many actions are undertaken as by reflex, without deliberate consideration.
To Freud, the notion of psychology was tied strongly to reason, though he was particularly interested in bringing reason to the surface. A person was dysfunctional when they acted on motivations of which they were unaware, and could be cured of their condition by exploring the causes - that is, to make them conscious of motivations they may not have been conscious of, and thereby enable them to apply logic to making a better choice.
For example, a man who has a seemingly irrational and non-rational fear of horses can be led (by conversation, hypnotism, or psychoactive drugs) to recall a childhood incident in which he was bitten by a horse, and thereby recognize the reason he carries with him this fear - and ultimately, to recognize that the fear is not logical (horses are not malicious creatures) and to change his reaction, thereby overcoming his fear of horses.
If we consider this example in light of modern theory, it holds: the notion that a "gestalt" involves emotions based on previous experiences wit ha certain set of stimuli - hence an object (such as a horse) is bound to an impression that influences how we feel when we encounter that same object again. Over time, we may forget the specific details, but the gestalt remains.
Of note: this is not at all irrational or impulsive. A person who has been injured by a horse has a reason, based on experience, for being uncomfortable when encountering another horse. They may not be conscious of the precise reasons, but this is not to say that reason does not exist.
(EN: this could and perhaps should be taken a step further, in examining association to components of experience. The negative stimulus of the pain of being bitten by horse may not be tied to the gestalt of the horse, but the meadow in which the subject was standing, or a color or scent he experienced at the time. Thus, a person bitten by a white horse might associate the pain to the color white, or some other stimuli he was experiencing at the time.)
A Justification For Brain Scanning Projects?
The notion and function of the subconscious has been ported to neuromarketing: the notion being that MRI and EEG scans are capable of discovering the "real truth" about human motivation.
The author provides examples and quotes that support this notion - but the bottom line is that it is an entirely inappropriate connection, which lead to a vast over-claiming of what neuromarketing and brain scanning techniques are actually capable of delivering.
Respondents Lying And Our Ethics
The author refers to the notion that "respondents lie" as another primary motivator for the desire to find unconscious or subconscious factors that motivate consumer behavior. However, the author describes this notion as an "urban myth." In the author's experience, respondents very seldom lie - and when they do so, it is due to poor research design.
One valid reason a respondent lies is to cover up unflattering information. This is clearly an instance in which the way in which the information is gathered (e.g., the wording of a question) or the demeanor of the researcher makes the respondent uncomfortable disclosing the truth.
When a researcher asks an embarrassing question - inquiring into a person's sex life, their health, or financial matters - he must recognize that respondents are uncomfortable. They may use humor to deal with their discomfort, or they may simply decide which answer is the least uncomfortable for them to give, regardless of the truth.
Another reason is that the respondent feels the need to please the researcher (Hawthorne effect), which is most obvious when the information provided to the subject leads him to believe that a specific response would be preferable.
Again, the researcher has created an uncomfortable situation for the respondent, and has provided him with sufficient information to make an educated guess as to what the researcher wishes to receive. This may be overt (again, the wording of the question) or subtle (elements of the environment of the nonverbal cues of the researcher).
A more serious issue is ethics: people have a right to privacy, and the right to refuse to answer any question. Where a researcher attempts to use brain-scanning techniques to extract information a subject does not wish to disclose, they are on very thin ice insofar as ethics and civil rights are concerned.