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What Jacob Rees-Mogg needs to learn about decision science

Politicians – like brand marketers – have one basic task: to persuade us to prefer their offer over all the alternatives. Its surprising, then, how little understanding most politicians show about how human decision-making (and therefore political – or brand – preference) actually works.

Since Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel prize-winning work in 2002 the worlds of neuroscience and behavioral economics have shown us conclusively how almost all decision-making is done by our subconscious ‘System 1’ brains acting largely on emotional, intuitive factors. The key to securing preference is to develop propositions (or political platforms) that connect powerfully with the high-level emotions that positively motivate us in any given situation.

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