Role of motivation research in consumer psychology

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Faculty Working Papers

ROLE OF MOTIVATION RESEARCH
IN CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

Jagdish N. Sheth

#153

College of Commerce and Business Administration

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

FACULTY WORKING PAPERS
College of Commerce and Business Administration
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
February 6, 1974

ROLE OF MOTIVATION RESEARCH
IN CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

Jagdish N. Sheth

#153

ROLE OF MOTIVATION RESEARCH IN CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

Jagdish N. Sheth
University of Illinois

I an not a motivation researcher and simply because I have
agreed to express my views on motivation research I should not
be labelled as an expert in motivation research. After I have
expressed my views, I am not sure that you will still like me
and respect me as a scholar and researcher in consumer behavior
especially if you are an expert on motivation research. In
short, my views on the relevance of motivation research in
consumer psychology are not all that positive. In fact, I am
somewhat surprised that special sessions are allotted to motiva-
tion research in this Seminar at a time when motivation researchers
have been considered a "vanishing breed," almost extinct in the U.S.

I am sure my friends in the motivation research area have
more sophisticated and interesting explanations lodged in Freudian
psychoanalytical theory which can easily link my behavior of being
late to some childhood problems in any one of the oral, anal,
phallic phases of my early development! If this seems like a
sarcastic unkind remark on motivation research, it is fully inten-
tional. I must remind you that there are too many research
studies in consumer psychology in which motivational researchers
have imputed exotic meanings behind very simple facts of life
and have misled numerous managers in several industries such as
the automobile, durable applia :es, grocery foods and packaging
industries. I should also quickly point out that many of my above
remarks are equally applicable to other fads promoted as scientific
research in consumer psychology.
Three Types of Motivation Research

Before you start throwing bricks and rocks at me, let me
describe what I mean by motivation research. While motivation
research has been given many names, some not so kind, I mean to
include in it any research on consumers which is anchored to the
clinical psychology and especially to Freudian thinking in
clinical psychology in its explanations and methodology.

Historically, motivation research represents the first serious
and systematic attempt to apply psychology to marketing at a •
time when marketing was dominated by economic thinking. In fact,
motivation research had a very persuasive argument in the fact
that consumers often did not behave logically as presumed by
the economists but rather psychologically. Furthermore, just
as clinical psychology concentrated on people's abnormal
behavior, motivation research was considered as the only relevant
means to understand the nonrationaU emotional world of the
consumers. Unfortunately, instead of first identifying non-
rational areas of consumer behavior and limiting its applications
to them, motivation research fell into the trap of presuming
that all consumer behavior i3 nonrational or emotional and hence
it is the only way to understand consumer behavior. I must add
that this temptation of territorial expansion is a very normal
tendency for any generalized theory in social Science and is not
limited to motivation research. In my opinion, it is this
overzealous and sometimes indiscriminate extension of motivation
research to irrelevant areas of consumption behavior which has
created the crisis of relevance; in fact, the theory and
methodology has come under disrepute in recent years. It is not
surprising to note that there is not a single doctoral dis-
sertation in the U. S. in marketing in the last ten to fifteen
years which has been based on the clinical psychological theories
as they relate to consumer behavior.

In order to examine the relevance of motivation research in
consumer psychology* it is advantageous to distinguish three
distinct types of motivation research practiced and promoted in

consumer psychology*

The first type of motivation research includes the highly
speculative, subjective and almost therapy-type qualitative
research in which both the methodology and theory of psychiatry
based on Freudian concepts are heavily utilized in consumer
research. This includes, for example, unstructured depth inter-
views and nowadays focused group interviews in which consumers
are encouraged to bring out all types of associations related to
a product or brand. Furthermore, the verbal associations made
by the consumers are interpreted and analyzed by researchers
trained in clinical psychology with the use of psychoanalytic
concepts. Invariably, the interpretations and analyses end up

adding surplus meanings to what consumers said, and often these
"additional insights1' are based on social, sexual and moral
taboos presumed to exist toward the product or the brand. In
short, it is presumed that the consumer's likes and dislikes are
not so much based on the functional utilities of the product or
the brand as on its social, sexual and moral utilities or dis-
utilities as perceived by the consumers.

It is this first type of motivation research which has told
us that (a) women get sexual arousals when wrapping Saran Wrap
around a meat loaf; (b) women fantacize giving birth to a baby
every time they bake a cakej (c) men treat their automobiles as
if they were their mistresses j (d) men inject considerable phallic
symbols in the body style of the automobile; (e) both men and
women reject prunes because they connote sterility, old age and
senile outlook; and more recently (f) women motorists get sexual
pleasure at the self service gasoline stations when they lift
the pump noszle and fill up the tank. Is this all really true?
Only your motivation researcher knows for sure. I am, however,
not sure that even the motivation researcher knows for aure
because there seldom exists any consensus among a group of
clinical motivation researchers about one another's inter-
pretations.

In my opinion, the intense loyalty to Freudian psychology,

wild speculations and almost qualitative nature of research
which has characterised most of the first type of motivation re-.
search, have been largely responsible for the downfall of mo-
tivation research in consumer psychology. And this is a sad
commentary because motivation research is» useful in some areas
of consumer behavior: we might have unnecessarily thrown out
the b&by with the bath water because the latter has been
perceived to be so dirty, unclean and murky as to be not at all
useful.

The second type of motivation research consists of
quantitative correlational analyses between people's consumption
behavior and personality profiles or syndromes measured by
standard personality batteries,, This type of research is not as
subjective, is generally based on large samples and has much
greater reliance on the quantitative measurement of the relation-
ship between consumption behavior and clinical psychology. Some
of the more widely utilised personality inventories in consumer

research include the Edwards persons! Preference Schedule
(EPPS) , Minnesota Multiphase Personality Iventory (MMPI) ,
Thurstone Temperament Scale and Gordon Profile*

It is this type of activation research which has given us
the following nuggets of consumer behavior wisdom: (a) extroverts
prefer convertibles to sedans; (h) sociables are more fashion-
conscious; (c) hypochondriacs use more selfmedicated (OTC)
drugs j (d) value-oriented Individuals buy economy brands; and
(e) Playboy is read by sociable, emotionally stable and non-
creative people* So what else is new?

A more fundamental problem with personality research in
consumer behavior is that most of the correlations between
personality and consumption behavior tend to be low and achieve
their statistical significance due to large samples. The low

covariance between personality and consumption behavior has
been a major factor in the slow acceptance of personality
research and eventual lack of interest among the marketing
practitioners*

Despite greater scientific bant in personality research in
terms of utilization of sampling theory, statistical indices and
psychometric scaling procedures, there are at least three reasons
which seem responsible for the moderate to weak linkage between
clinical psychology and consumer psychology in this type of
motivation research. First, the domain of personality theories
underlying standard personality inventories may be 'less
relevant to consumption behavior than to clinically abnormal
behavior.. In other words, wholesale adoption of behavioral
sciences without any thought to modifying them is less likely to
prove fruitful simply because no single behavioral science can
explain all social phenomena equally well. This is even a more
serious problem .rsonality research where the clinical
psychologists have, openly ignored the economic and consumption
behaviors of people and concentrated more heavily on inter-
personal relationships, A quick check into the psychometric
scales of all the major personality inventories will clearly re-
veal that odds are as small as one in thousand of finding a
statement or scale explicitly related to economic or consumption
behavior of people. How cars then such inventories relate to
consumer behavior when, the inventories themselves have no

sampling of economic domain o£ people's behavior?

Secondly, the psychometric si. accessary to define and
measure personality or consumption behavior are still at a
primitive stage* We simply don't know enough about the
measurement aspect of psychological phenomena unlike what is
true in physics and mechanics* While considerable progress is
made each day, we should realize the limitations of measurement
instruments and . ie presence of nonsampling measurement
errors in our data* Unfortunately, the aura of "scientific"
analysis built around the personality research in consumer
psychology may have dona more harm than what is realized: the
poor correlations may not be due as much to lack of relationship
between personality and consumption behavior as due to measure-
ment problems on both sides of the equation.

Finally, the most serious limitation of personality

research is its emphasis to directly link consumption behavior
with personality syndrome. This emphasis does not allow for a
number of mediating variables which often intervene between
manifestation of consumption behavior due to personality
motivations* These include social, economic, demographic
and environmental situational variables as well as the perceptual
and preference world of the individual consumer. For example,
even though my personality syndrome may dictate that I should buy
a Rolls Royce, the economic constraints are likely to be over-
whelming* Similarly, the housewife fs personality may dictate
that she should prefer instant foods, the social environment may
Inhibit her adoption of instant foods. Unless personality
profiles are mediated through a set of situational (social,
economic or demographic) and psychological (perceptual or add-
itudinai) variables, it is likely that we will always get small
positive correlations between personality and consumption
behavior.*

The third type of motivation research consists of heavy
utilisation of the methodology of clinical psychology and very
little utilization of the theory. This includes projective
techniques or indirect questioning methods such as word
associations^ sentence completion, other person characterizations,
and the like,. The basic presumption in this type of motivation
research is that there are hidden motivations which the consumer

is conscious of, but is not likely to reveal in any direct
questioning. There are too many studies in consumer behavior -in
which projective techniques have been relied upon. It is perhaps
sufficient here to report a classical study on instant coffee in
the late forties,, Even though, instant coffee could not be
distinguished from regular coffee in blind tests, the typical
stereotype negative comments for not using instant coffee were
that "it tastes terrible" or that "my husband does not like it".
Mason Haire designed two shopping lists which were identical
except for the coffee item. One list included Nescafe Instant
Coffee and the other included Maxwell House Drip Grind Coffee.
The two lists were administered to a randomly split sample of
housewives in which they were asked to characterise a woman who
would utilize the shopping list developed in the study. In
general, there were more negative comments addressed toward the
woman who had Nescafe Coffee in her list than the woman who had
Maxwell House Coffee,, The negative comments tended to portray
the Nescafe Instant Coffee user as lazy, not a good homemaker
and one who does not love her husband. This indirectly revealed
the negative connotations present toward instant coffee pre-

tesulting in its slower adoption in the market place,
When I replicated the study in the late sixties utilising almost
identical shopping lists, we found virtually no differences in
the comments of the two groups of housewives. Even when there
were negative comments toward the instant coffee user, the
housewife qualified her negative comments by giving excuses
such as -'she must be working", "she must be very busy", etc. for
her instant coffee. This is not surprising to find in
view of the fact that the Am n family structure has changed
considerably in quarter of a century especially in
regard to the role of the woman in the family and in the society.
What Typ'.- . n_ Con suae r P sy c ho lo gy?

It on that of the chree types of motivation

research, pri miques as imaginative research designs

will survive s are likely to prove much less

useful in consumer psychology. Even projective techniques are
not relevant In all areas of consumer behavior. In order to
examine the relative contribution of motivation research to
consumer psychology, let us examine different types of consumer
behavior.

First, consumption behavior in general is normal behavior

and society has a positive attitude toward greater con-
sumption, spect and asp oward a better standard-
of 1 ivy the wore affluent societies. If consumption
behavior is normal^ it is correct to expect that people will
feel free to -lss about their consumption
behavior similar to what they do about interpersonal relation-
ships,, In other wore'.: e vast majority of consumption behavior
can be openly and fi*eely discussed* We can, therefore, assess
the psychological world of the consul f direct questioning.
In all of these areas, there is no need for motivation research
theory or methodology.

Second, there are some areas of consumption behavior where
the personal beliefs and values are often in conflict with
societal beliefs and values. What the individual behaves or
would like to ive is considered not appropriate, good or
correct by the society* The individual consumer can easily
articulate why he behaved the way he did in a specific choice
behavior situation but he is not willing to tell others perhaps
because of the fear of being ridiculed or looked down on by
others 0 Direct que in these areas is likely to produce
at best star. cs or at worst deliberate disguises and

rationalizations on the part of the consumer <, It is in this

i of consumer behavior where projective techniques and other
indirect methods of questioning are most useful in consumer
psychology* There arc. however, methodological problems
associ,: >jectiv chniques which should not be over-

looked* For st of them require content analysis of

verbal responses, to a set of projective stimuli which is difficult
to standard-] .:. tantify0 Fortunately, some recent method-

a indirect (unobstxxisive) observations
can be of imrai ping ation research alive and

kicking* One ex; tnsional scaling

techniques in which the consumers are asked to make simple
similarity or pi ace judgments about products or services,
and statist >ts are made to indirectly discover the

number and nature of criteria utilised by the consumers in
making, those judgments*

Finally, there is a small minority of consumption behavior
which can be labelled as abnormal or undesirable consumption
behavior* This will include all types of serious addictions

h as fcowa: drugs s or compulsive consumption of foods,
alcoholism and the like, A common characteristic underlying
ail these abnormal i irable consumption behaviors is the
fact that robably docs not behave voluntarily nor

desires coo sumption behavior. Probably, he

docs not; even know shaves the way he does, and even if
he knew, he -■ behavior, I think both the

psychoanalytic behavior modification therapies of

clinical p ;■ ■ are very relevant in these areas of consumer
behavior* However, it should be kept in mind that the proportion
of abnormal or u --.able consump behavior in the total
domain of con.su lor is relatively small, and therefore,

the classical motivation research is only selectively relevant
in consumer behavior.
Cone. lu

Let me arise i iws on motivation research;

&» ation research is not relevant to all domains of

con." ivior and, therefore, to all domains of

consumer psychology. No single viewpoint is really enough
to full I adequately describe, explain and predict
;>iex consumer behavior.;

b. st to drop the psychoanalytic theories under-
lying motri n research and rely more heavily on the

clinical psychology,

c. Personality research will not be useful unless we

ption behavi . -eloping consumption-
recent . raent of life style

seal tlO scales are. representative of this

trei d, . insti nts are made consumption-

Co mediate personality or
life utyh lal (socials economic

options or attitudes)

d. Motivation form should be limited to

behavior in which the respondents

or reveal their true
fee; and in which they mani abnormal or undersirable
con Unfortunately, these areas of

consumer or are not predominant nor even sizeable to
justify motivation research as a unique theory or method-
igy in consumer behavior.

Sound i