Examining Pandemic Purchase Regret

Did you make a pandemic purchase you regret? Our co-founder, Dr. Jorge Barraza spoke with Alex Madrigal and Aparna Labroo on the KQED Forum Podcast to discuss. 

From Pelotons to stock piles of baking flour - we all made purchase decisions that were outside the norm during lockdown. We made these purchases to adjust to new social norms, to accommodate new routines and - honestly - just to brighten our days!

"This was a time where our lives were disturbed. Habits that we had were disrupted and we tried to form new habits to accommodate for the changes in our lives." - Jorge Barraza, KQED Forum Podcast

There's a lot to learn from consumer purchase behavior from such a disruptive time in our lives. 

"We make decisions based on what our anticipation of what the future will be like. Ultimately, those decisions are cost-benefit calculations. Ultimately, regret comes from . . . the more we miscalculate. That's more likely to happen when these decisions are made in the heat of the moment or based on these emotions." - Dr. Jorge Barraza

Emotions are a massive part of consumers purchase decisions, which is why Immersion can help predict whether a person plans to purchase by measuring the presence of neurochemicals in the brain. In fact, Immersion is a far better predictor of purchase behavior compared to self reporting. The volatility of consumer emotion & purchase behavior during lockdown is an incredible study on the flexibility of those habits.

"Ultimately, this was a time where the way of functioning was disrupted. So people had to build habits and find new ways of doing things."- Dr. Jorge Barraza

To hear more about the psychology of purchase behavior and consumer regret during the pandemic (and for a FUN conversation about what people actually bought!) you can listen to the podcast HERE.

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