Editor’s note: David Forbes is chief innovation officer at Forbes Consulting, a division of Copernicus Marketing, Boston.

Recent years have brought a host of advances in the tool kits used by scientists studying consumer behavior. On one hand, we have a variety of new tools to look inside the consumer that enable us to discover patterns of emotion and thought. On the other, we have access to information about consumer behavior at a breadth and depth like never before. As this rich body of consumer information grows, it is a good time to contemplate how we can wrap our minds – and our analyses – around all of it.

Perhaps the first step toward a holistic understanding of consumers is for us to adopt a more precise and consistent vocabulary in talking about the objects of our study. On the intrapsychic side of research, we need to gain precision about what kinds of mental activities drive and shape behavior. On the behavioral side of research, we need to distinguish the types of behavior that we are trying to explain. Once we can agree on the set of entities that make up our field of study, we can strive for a perspective that encompasses the entire field.

I would like to propose some distinctions among mental and behavioral phenomena that have grown up around my personal study of consumers over the past 30 years. My goal is to start an important conversation about terminology, with the conviction that we can’t understand the complete puzzle of human behavior unless we can agree about the shapes, sizes and colors of the puzzle pieces. In that spirit, I offer the following thoughts.

Creating a consistent vocabulary

I’d like to begin by suggesting that one time-honored concept of consumer psychology – the attitude – be laid to rest. Instead, three other concepts – motives, beliefs and values – should take the place of attitudes. I suggest this because everything we have heretofore called an attitude is actually an imprecise combination of a statement of belief, a statement of value and/or a reference to an emotional drive or motivation. These three terms provide a more precise platform for analyzing the psychology of behavior.

I suggest we use the term “motives” to refer to the psychological forces we call motivations which drive our intentions toward action. These are the emotional forces involved in what Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, calls System 1 thinking. System 1 is a very fast, emotionally driven and often subconscious decision-making process that plays a preeminent role in shaping much of consumer behavior. Discovering consumer motives will allow us to identify the emotional urges and impulses which form the bases for answering what consumers want to do. As emotional entities, motives will need to be studied using specialized tools that are capable of gaining access to the emotions.

The other two psychological forces behind behavior are part of what Kahneman calls System 2 thinking. System 2 is a more deliberative, conscious and rational decision-making process, most often involved in guiding the tactical pursuit of goals that originally arose from the emotional drives of System 1. I would suggest that we use the term “beliefs” to refer to the convictions we have about how the world works, what is possible and what is impossible. Understanding consumer belief systems allows us to define the range of what consumers think is possible to do. The study of belief systems will certainly include general beliefs about human behavior and beliefs about the physical world. Belief science will also require the development of belief inventories that identify beliefs pertinent to specific areas of product functionality – e.g., beliefs about air fresheners. Strength of conviction about beliefs will factor into the study of belief systems. Much remains to be done in this important area of consumer psychology.

Finally, I propose that we use the term “values” to refer to the system of ideas consumers have about what is important to do – or at the extreme, what must be done. We must distinguish systems of socio-moral values (e.g., it’s important to be hospitable to guests in your home) from systems of practical-empirical values (e.g., it’s important to make sure your jack is secure before removing a wheel from your car).

With these three ideas, our understanding of the psychological “why” of behavior emerges as follows: When I want to do something (motives) that I believe is possible to do (beliefs) and I feel is important to do (values), then I am highly likely to do that something.

Alongside our proposed system of concepts for explaining behavior, I also suggest the important distinctions that can be drawn regarding types of behavior to be explained. Here again three concepts seem to suffice:

  • Strategic behavior is fully conscious, planned, premeditated behavior guided by all three psychological forces. It arises in the energy of motivation, is activated by a value system that judges importance and creates a call to action. The call to action is guided by the belief systems we all have about how things get done and what actions are effective. As we study strategic behavior it is critical to identify types of plans that tie such behaviors together in real-world situations and also to understand links between these behaviors and the beliefs, values and motives operating underneath behavioral events.
  • Reactive behavior is also conscious behavior that is planned but not premeditated. It originates as a response to perceptions caused by an environmental event that has some element of unfamiliarity or surprise. Reactive behavior is in play whenever circumstances create uncertainty about appropriate behavior. Reactive behaviors are more spontaneous than premeditated, guided more by the rapid System 1 emotional processes of motivation and evaluation and by cognitive control on the basis of trial and error. Studies of reactive behavior will require both a psychological understanding of our reactive decision-making processes as well as an ecological study of environmental stimuli that provoke our reactive behaviors (e.g., what a consumer must see, think and feel to react to a new product display by deciding to try it).
  • Habitual behavior is behavior that is overlearned. It rests upon motivational urges that have already found an efficient path to fulfilment and involves decisions based on values considered and decided upon as well as beliefs already validated in past experience. Habitual behavior takes place in situations where motives, beliefs and values operate unchanged from one instance to the next. Habitual behavior is often almost unconscious. In the study of habitual behavior, we explore the roots of a habit, measure the strength of the habit and identify psychological tipping points that can result in the breaking of a consumption habit.

Much work remains to be done in developing the conceptual foundation for research that seeks to systematically integrate the study of consumer psychology and the study of patterns in consumer behavior. In the interest of moving toward maximum synergy between vastly diverse practitioners of consumer research, I hope that the distinctions outlined here will become a springboard toward terminology that lets researchers think and communicate clearly about their work.