System 1 and System 2

System 1 and System 2 are the two modes of thinking from cognitive psychology. System 1 is fast, automatic, associative and effortless: it recognises faces, completes sentences and chooses in the supermarket without deliberation. System 2 is slow, conscious and effortful: it calculates, compares and justifies. The vast majority of buying behaviour runs on System 1, while market research and marketing plans often implicitly assume a System 2 consumer weighing options. For marketing this means: be easy to recognise, easy to buy and emotionally appealing, because the fast route decides most. Rational arguments matter, but usually as justification after the fact.

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