Beyond Rationality: Why Emotions Drive Our Decisions

Okay, so Behavioral Economics has ended the debate whether human beings make rational choices to maximize the benefits or sub-optimal choices to satisfice. Does that mean we make 'irrational' choices? No. Both Kahneman and Thaler-Sunstein duo say that we make 'boundedly' rational decisions most of the time. So how is bounded or limited rationality different from complete rationality. My interpretation (perhaps a hangover of my advertising days) suggests that we process information not just cognitively, but also with emotions. I say so because the tricomponent model of consumer behavior has long recognized the cognitive, affective (evaluative) and conative as three major components of behavior. And the creative brains in advertising were quick to understand how to leverage the 'systemic biases' by playing largely on emotions. I am reminded of the famous dialogue from film 'Deewar' when Amitabh Bachchan tells the man who just sold him a flat that if he (the seller) had asked for double the price on which the deal was made, he (Amitabh) would have happily paid it because Amitabh's mother in the movie had worked as a laborer when the building was under construction. Certainly not a 'cognitive' answer. The 'emotion' of gifting the same building to his mother on her birthday is so strong that Amitabh is willing to pay any price for it. I don't know whether it is 'Ikea Effect' or some other bias, or perhaps a mixture of several biases. I leave that debate to the academics, but I see an interesting implication for SBCC practitioners. Should we continue to develop 'text heavy' and cognitively overloaded IEC material to appeal to the limited rationality of our audience? Or should we learn from 'Deewar' experience to evoke the emotions of our potential buyers? Watch this interesting video that 'sells' the helmet wearing behavior to a young person in a very different way - relying largely on the 'affective' component and not cognitive. What's your take - do you think it would have been more persuasive if we had included data/statistics on how many people lose their lives in road accidents by not wearing helmets? And yes, a disclaimer - this video doesn't endorse 'violence' in today's sensitive times