Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience

Theory: Explain observable phenomena (good theory: clear how and why leads to what)
Levels: High abstraction (general; have practically unlimited scope(s)), middle abstraction (limited sets of
phenomena), lower abstraction (empirical generalization, limited scope).
Model: simplified phenomena helping to work in domain; descriptive rather than descriptive.
Framework: structuring concepts within a model without explanation.

Theoretical approaches have three overarching aims: building (process of translating research into practice;
process model), explaining (understanding/explaining what influence implementation outcomes; determinant
frameworks (cause and effect, no explanation), classic theories (how emotions, self-efficacy, confidence
building with psych explained), implementation theories (scientific merit and practical)), evaluation (evaluation
frameworks (determining specific structures if things work or not)).

Implementation Science; Categories:

1. Process Models (Frameworks): provide a framework for translating research into practice by outlining
the steps, stages and phases for implementation use.
- Action Model (Knowledge-to-Action): a type of process model that provides practical guidance
in the planning and execution of implementation endeavours/implementation strategies to
facilitate implementation. Many action models originate from nursing fields.
2. Determinate Frameworks: describe the independent variables that influence implementation outcomes
(dependent variables), providing insight into the relationships between key factors that support
implementation. Black box cause & effect, with no knowledge of why the relation exists.
3. Classic Theories: theories from fields such as psychology, sociology and organizational theory that can
be used to explain and understand implementation processes. Grey box explanation for how the
variables relate. Great for predictions.
4. Implementation Theories: theories that provide a framework for understanding and explaining the
complexities of implementation processes.
5. Evaluation Frameworks: are used to assess the success of an implementation by measuring its adherence
to specific criteria or impact objectives.

The use of a single theory that focuses only on a particular aspect of implementation will not tell the whole
story. Choosing one approach often means placing weight on some aspects at the expense of others, thus
offering only particle understanding.
- The world is always more complex than the model

Laws: quantitative rules that explain how the world works, without fail. With exceptions that shouldn’t exist.
Biological/ Physical Structures: physical structures such as the endocrine system or neuroanatomy that describe
how processes work.
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Tampering with Behaviour Change Models
- Botching Scientific Models: No evidence they'll work
- Typically we adapt models: it’s normal to adapt models, while respecting their active ingredients.

The Human Brain and Mind

Emotional Behaviour Model

The simple linear version of the emotional-behaviour model divides the brain into major processes that are
involved when a trigger event impacts how a person feels, thinks and acts.
- The sequential elements move one process to the next
- The cross-cutting processes occur parallel

Types of Behaviour: Behavior from pre conscious to conscious

1. Reflex
2. Habitual
3. Deliberate

1. Trigger Events (Signal): any event that a person detects, in their thoughts, body, or the outside world.
2. Sense Perception (Perception): through the sensory systems, the brain receives information about external
events.
3. Schemas & Long-Term Memory (Classification): the brain interprets the outside world through categories,
stored in neutral circuits.
4. Learned Associations: when people experience two things at the same time, those events are recorded into
long-term memory, with associated memory circuits.
5. Emotional Reactions: Emotions are short-term physiological reactions to trigger events that help people
prepare for a threat or opportunity.
6. Behaviour (Habitual): habitual behaviors are actions that do not require much deliberative conscious effort.
7. Consciousness & Working Memory: working memory is the temporary buffer for holding information. It can
hold 3-5 chunks of information for 10-20 seconds. There are distinct systems for visual, temporal and linguistic
memory.
8. Cognitive Appraisal: during cognitive appraisal people become aware of their physical, emotional and
cognitive response. At this stage, they exert deliberate efforts to change their default course of action.
9. Behaviour (Deliberate): this is when a person acts
Cross-Cutting:
10. Decision-Making: decision-making is not a conscious act, but rather the result of multiple interrelated
processes, largely influenced by emotions.
11. Glucose Consumption (Effort): as the processes move from the left to right in the figure above, the brain
consumes greater volumes of glucose.
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Signals and Perception:
Notes:
- It’s a myth that we only have 5 senses (scientists argue we have up to 20)
- Every interaction w media triggers some reaction (intended or not)
- Humans are unaware of most perceptual details, but eel the effects
Never design beyond memory limits:
1. Visual Memory: 3-10 seconds
2. Short-Term Memory: 10-20 seconds
3. Memory Span: 3-5 times
Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store memory model (modified)

Classification
Schemas & Long-Term Memory: the brain interprets the outside world through categories, stored in neutral
circuits.
- These caretories are called schemas, which are stored hierarchies of sensory data.
There are:
1. Mental Representations: an example of this is both a Golden retriever and Schnauzer belonging
to a dog schema.
2. Psychological Schemas: schema is the relationship between mental representations that structure
how we understand the world. Ex. house cats and lions belong to the feline schema.
3. Concrete to abstract and memory decay:
- Idealists: abstract thinkers have greater memory decay. They form broad mental models
that aid abstract thinking and insight. Ex. Cats and Dogs belonging to an Animal schema
- Realsist: concrete thinkers maintain strong memories of experience. They form concrete
mental models tied to actual experience. Ex. Titan and Slyder belonging to a Dog Schema
Schemas: provide a framework into which new information is easily integrated.
- Schemas help us classify situations
Schema Consistency (Congruent) - Schema Violation: (fits stereotype - breaks stereotype), (anticipated -
unanticipated), (prediction success - prediction error).

Defining Emotions
Emotion: a series of physiological responses to a perceived threat or opportunity; help respond to situations.
Note: motivation is an emotion that facilitates action.
Sources and impact of emotions:
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Emotion is just one of many affective states (psychological and physiological states of arousal, valence and
motivation intensity) that impacts human behaviour.
- Think: conscious thought that people experience, shaped by their affective states.
- Feel: the sensation that people experience; it lets them know they are experiencing an emotion or are in a
certain mood.
- (Some people feel emotions throughout their body)
- Do: actions that they take, which are influenced by their effective states.
- Emotion: immediate affective states, in response to specific threats or opportunities.
- Is situation based on what is happening (something you’re facing that you have to deal with)
- Mood: long-term affective states lasting from a few days to several months
- Most of use cycle through difference moods, they depend on environment
- Personality: a person’s disposition, sometimes called their temperament
Occurrences within emotional states:
1. Appraisal: Cognitive appraisal of objects and events, CNS. ex. is this a threat or opportunity?
2. Physiology: Neurological and physiological preparation, CNS, NES, ANS. ex. this is an opportunity, so
get the body ready to act
3. Executive: Motivation, focus, and preparation to act, CNS. ex.focus on the task ahead, and start planning
4. Behaviour: Motor and communication of responses, SNS. ex.show excitement in facial expressions, tone
and body language.
5. Monitoring: Feelings that help monitoring self and environment, CNS. ex. help monitoring events
through subjective feelings.
Feelings: are awareness of physiological changes (the emotion) as the brain prepares the body for a predicted
situation
- Conscious: sensory input & motor output (controls skeletal muscles)
- Less Conscious: sympathetic (arousing) & parasympathetic (calming)
- Parasympathetic Nerves: safety (rest and digest)
- Sympathetic Nerves: danger (fight or flight)
Physiology of emotional responses:
- Homeostasis: fixed EQ metaphor, where the system always seeks a state of equilibrium.
- Allostasis: adaptive EQ metaphor, where multiple systems are activated for optimal configuration based
on anticipation of immediate response.
Motivational Hierarchy (renovated from Maslow’s 1943 model:

Survival
- Physiological survival (Immediate Survival): people are motivated to satisfy their basic biological needs.
- Safety & Security (Self-Protection): when people believe they are vulnerable to threats, they feel uneasy
and are driven to avoid any perceived threats.
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Social
- Relationships & Community (Trusted Social Networks): people are motivated to connect with other
people and to form social bonds.
- Status & Self-Esteem (Social Rank and Resources): people seek social rank/status as a way of increasing
access to resources, obtaining numerous social benefits and boosting their odds of finding good mates.

Reproductive
- Sex (Mating): people are driven to satisfy their sexual needs and look for potential partners.
- Love (Pair Bonding and Nest Building): people are motivated to form a pair bond, which is driven by
the emotional motivator better known as love.
- Parenting (Legacy Survival): people are driven to ensure their children’s well-being and to promote their
children’s long-term success.

Loss Aversion Incentives

Cortisol (avoid) Dopamine (desire)

How to Trigger Perceiving any threat Perceiving any opportunity

Controls Behaviour Grabs attention, drives us to Creates anticipation of reward,

remove the pain/ threat drives us to pursue reward

Neural Impact Shapes pathway around threat Shapes pathway towards reward
Note: the same value feels greater when presented as a loss

Formal Emotion Systems

There's TWO academic approaches to classifying emotion
1. Categorical Theories: 6-14 basic emotions
2. Dimensional Theories: 2-3 dimensions of emotion
Cugelman Emotional Map:
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Motivator: anything presented before action that energizes someone to change their behaviour.
- Opportunity and threats (future promises)
- Intrinsic: motivators lead to a different reinforcer
- Extrinsic: motivators lead to the same reinforce
Reinforcers: anything which occurs during/ after an action that increases the odds of it happening again.
- Rewards and punishments (present day)

Intro to Dopamine
Dopamine:
- Trigger: perceiving anything that promoted survival, achieving goals.
- Duration: various timelines in pursuit of a goal, then after attainment, it clears quickly.
- Schema/ Learning Impact: shapes neural pathways towards rewards.
- Emotional Impact: pleasure, curiosity, interest, anticipation and excitement
- Behavioural Impact: creates anticipation of reward, driving us to pursue goals with rewards.

Emotional design strategies: dopamine

Prolonged triggering of dopamine leads to habituation, where old rewards stop motivating.
- Dopamine plays a role in impulsive and addictive behaviour
Dopamine and approach behaviour:

Triggering Dopamine
Reward prediction errors: consist of the differences between received and predicted rewards.
- Error: refers to the difference between the can that came out and the low expectation of getting exactly
that one, irrespective of whether I made an error or something else went wrong
- Reward: is any object or stimulus that I like and of which I want more
- If the reward is better than predicted (positive prediction error) (red)
- If the reward is worse than predicted (negative prediction error) (red)
- If the reward is exactly as predicted (green)
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
- Reward prediction error: then means the difference between the reward I get and the reward that was
predicted.
1. Trigger
2. Motivation to act
3. Outcome
4. Learning
Dopamine Graphs:

Progressive Dopamine Triggers: triggers - editorial - video - landing page

1 - Editorial Title Hook - 5 Sec Intro - Value Proposition
2 - Reading question in first paragraph - 1 Min for Next Trigger - List of Benefits
3 - Foreshadowing - Next Trigger in 10 - Case Study
4 - Raise More Questions - Next Trigger in 20 - Promised Results in Testimonial

Overcoming Habituation
Habituation: when the brain habituates to old rewards, things that triggered dopamine in the past, no longer
trigger dopamine.
- When habituation occurs users still seek rewards but the offer loses its ability to trigger dopamine.
- Drives innovation and new functionality across many markets

Variable rewards spike dopamine while working towards the reward:

Reward Proximity: dopamine rises as we get closer to the reward.

- Streaks (example wordle) have loss-aversion, where people fear losing the good feeling.

Dopamine and disappointment:

- Sometimes the journey is better than the destination.
- Avoid bait and switch
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Decision Making: Do people make decisions only made on logic?
Decisions are shaped by biases: cognitive biases (brain uses heuristic rules to make fast decisions), emotional
biases (the brain uses intuition to make fast decisions); sometimes cause errors in judgement.

Brain fact: reaches decisions 7-10 seconds before consciously deciding, 95-99% of decisions can be made from
preconscious emotions, “post hoc rationalization” inaccurate explanation that was really made from stereotypes,
habits, emotions, etc.
How emotions shape decisions: damage to brain regions that are emotional will not make better decisions,
emotions mark memories as good, bad, or indifferent.
Memories with emotional associations: emotionally marked memories shape future intuition through
association of good, bad, or indifferent. The more emotion experienced, the stronger the memory.

Rational vs. Irrational Approach? (Elaboration likelihood model used to decide)

Peripheral route: low elaboration (minimal processing) -> persuasion based on non-message (attractiveness,
emotion, credibility) -> less durable change.
Central route: high elaboration (careful processing) -> based on content and logic of the message -> more
durable change.
Behaviour (Habitual):
Trigger -> user behaviour -> reinforcer
It takes about 66 days to form habits (18-254); automacity is when a beh. feels natural and doesn’t require cons.
effort to start.
Digital Reinforcers:
Punishments (adding bad: negative dialogue, ambiguity, hidden fees)(removing good: erasing work, ending free
trials). Rewards (adding good: showing completion, positive dialogue, victory graphics) (removing bad:
improving system speed, lifting system restrictions).
Consciousness & Working - Memory: “I think therefore I am”
Dualism and the mind-body problem: Brain (Physical structure; neuro) Mind (Consciousness; psych)
Atkinson-Shriffrin:
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Baddeley and Hitch:

Memory and Emotion:

Processing Stages:
1. Encoding: central details with emotional associations or importance are better encoded, peripheral
details are ignored or poorly encoded.
2. Storage: central details are better encoded and retained, peripheral details can fade after a few days,
negative emotions are stored more strongly than positive emotions.
3. Retrieval: emotionally powerful memories are better remembered with more accuracy.
Cognitive Appraisal: changing how you look at a situatio can change how you feel about it.
Interpretation -> Consciousness and working memory -> acting on emotions (exits) or consciously reassess
impulses -> restructuring schemas.
Applications: techniques to change schemas:
Behavioural design (inoculation theory, framing techniques, primin techniques, anchoring)
Clinical therapy (cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive bias modification, mindfulness-based therapy)

Glucose Consumption and Cognitive Lead: Colour and font spelling comparisons.

Threats-Punishments: Anxiety, Stress, Cortisol

Cortisol: (stress hormone)
- Stress lingers (stress builds up until you reach your limit)
- One of the best ways to deal with stress hormones is to exercise
- Fight or flight or freeze
Triggering: Perceiving any internal or external threat
Duration: Accumulates from hours to days, until depleted naturally or from physical exertion or calming stimuli
Schema/Learning Impact: Shapes neural pathways around threat perceptions, influencing reaction time and
intensity to perceived threats
Emotional impact: Stress alertness (low levels), stress/pressure (mid levels), anxiety (high levels)
Behaviour impact: Grabs our attention and drives us to remove the pain or threat.

Torture techniques used in interactive design:

Brain washing: insecure, induced nervous breakdown through repeat exposure to variable punishments

Learned helpless torture: pessismistic, induced depression by making them feel helpless and powerless, freeze
state
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Reducing cortisol/stress:
Simplifying processes, error free design, reassuring the goal will be met, social contact, reducing cognitive load,
reduce ambiguity.

Autonomic nervous system (auto pilot):

Rest and Digest (secure, Fight or Flight (insecure, Freeze (pessimistic)
parasympathetic) sympathetic)

-Constricts pupil -Dilates pupil Freeze is the physiological

-Inhibits heart -Accelerates heart response when fight or flight fails
-Constricts bronchi -Relaxes bronchi and someone doesn’t escape the
-Stimulates salivation -Inhibits salivation threat

Cortisol and the stress response

A balancing act (need to balance in eustress)
Calm - Underpressured
Eustress - Stress that keeps you engaged, Healthy pressure Without this you lack motivation (similar to
depression)
Distress - Over pressured
Healthy Stress (Pressure)
Triggering motivating cortisol (healthy pressure)
- Loss-aversion value propositions (buy our product and solve these problems)
- Demonstrating vulnerability (weakness or problem)
- Using scarcity (only a few items left eg. booking.com)
- Stressing deadlines an urgency
- Introduction competition (everyone else will buy it before you)
- Monitoring progress against goals
Triggering unhealthy stress (cortisol):
goal frustration - time/work pressure Cognitive overload Complexity Ambiguity
needless friction - too much too fast

-Impossible tasks -Requesting too inefficient design unsure the outcome

-Too many errors much of actions
5 personality domains
Seeker
- People who score high in this domain tend to have high energy levels and take an enthusiastic approach
to life
- People are driven by their curiosity, adventurous spirit, tolerance for risky situations and dislike of
routines
Pragmat
- People who score high in this domain tend to take a systematic approach to life and focus on things and
intellectual pursuits
- They’re more logical and analytical, and communicate in a straight-forward and sometimes blunt way
Consumer Behaviour: Theories and Models in Behavioural Science and Pseudoscience
Empat
- People who score high in this domain have a strong social orientation and a greater awareness of their
emotions
- They have a strong ability to read other people’s emotions and a greater awareness of their own feelings
towards different situations and people
Anchor
- People who score high in this domain tend to live more traditional lives and prefer an environment is
organized and stable
- They tend to be more modest, and show greater respect for conventions and authority, and are more
likely to accept rules and social norms
Reactive (reactivity)
- Reactivity describes a person’s natural response to stressful situations (they may respond quickly and
intensely or slowly and modestly)
- It is the only domain that moderates the other four personality domains
- People with high reactivity are more likely to experience a personality shift in stressful situations
- People with low reactivity are less likely to experience a personality shift
Personality Types
-The SPEAR system follows the principle of complementary and supplementary fit
-Relationships unite people either through attractive similarity or complementary diversity
-Complementary relationships thrive on personalities that are radically different
-Ones strength complements the others weaknesses creating a bond grounded in the strengths of diversity
-Supplementary relationships are those where each person is extremely similar
-The relationship is founded on like-mindedness, a common outlook, shared values, and similar approach to life

Reducing cortisol/stress
-Simplifying processes (checkouts)
-Error free design
-Reassuring that goal will be met
-Social contact
-Reducing cognitive load
-Reduce ambiguity

Emotional overload Personality factors

Powerlessness - cannot complete tasks Overstimulating introverts
Social threats Understimulating extroverts
Status threats
Homeostasis threats