To further deepen our understanding of decision behavior, we look to mobile and online tools to produce more profound insights for “in-the-moment” decision making. Eelke Roos, Senior Research Manager at SKIM, reports on using a mobile app to look at doctors’ System 1 and System 2 thinking related to prescription-writing in the February 2015 edition of Quirk’s magazine.

Conducting in-the-moment mobile research with physicians

“Have you ever wondered why people choose Coke over Pepsi or Bud Light over Coors Light? Or why two brands of pharmaceuticals with similar efficacy and safety measures are prescribed differently? The reasoning behind these types of decision outcomes is often more influenced by emotion than rational thinking.

While both are effective ways of processing information, feeling is more immediate. The interplay between rational and emotional decision-making reveals what actually happens at the tipping point – in this case, the point at which a prescription is written. One would expect physicians to rely primarily on hard facts and objective data but that is often not the case. In exploring how these decisions are really made, it is necessary to identify when and how rational and emotional processes come into play. And, compared to more traditional market research tools such as in-depth interviews in a research facility, mobile devices are superior research tools for revealing the true in-the-moment drivers behind prescribing decisions…”