Psychodrama as a Qualitative Implicit Association Technique

Psychodrama is a technique through which people, most often in groups, re-enact various important events in their lives so that their emotions and cognitions related to those events can surface, be explored, understood and dealt with. Psychodrama is traditionally employed as a psychotherapeutic technique, but can add enormous value as a method in emotional marketing research as well.

An alternative to traditional focus groups, psychodrama allows participants to build stronger rapport, which makes it easier for members of the group to experience and share their true feelings. Additionally, psychodrama naturally promotes the unveiling of unconscious emotions and any implicit association (i.e., cognitions, emotions and feelings) that acts as a strong driver of consumer behavior.

Misattribution as a Quantitative Implicit Association Technique

Just as psychodrama has proven to be a valuable and effective qualitative implicit association consumer research technique, the same is true for misattribution (sometimes directly called Implicit Association), but quantitatively. Misattribution works by quickly presenting representations of products or brands in order to activate any unconscious emotional association that a viewer might have toward the product or brand. Next, a participant is misdirected to complete a feelings task that is unrelated to evaluating the product or brand. By observing their performance on the misdirected task after being shown the product or brand vs. not being shown the product or brand (or being a neutral representation as a control), researchers can measure the participant's unconscious feelings about the product or brand being tested.

Each of these techniques assess any emotional implicit association people might have toward a particular brand or product, allowing a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the emotions that are driving consumer buying behavior.

Contact us Today

To learn more about psychodrama and misattribution as emotional implicit association techniques, please contact Paul Conner at 314-752-0564 or paul@emotiveanalytics.com.