Research Seminar by Prof. Priya Narayanan

Posted on March 10, 2022 by administrator

A research seminar by Prof. Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Marketing at IIM Kozhikode was held on February 17, 2022.

Seminar Topic – Re(de)fining Dual-Process Theories of Information Processing: The ACCU Model

Abstract – Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow popularized the notion of “two systems” of information processing, where System 1 provides fast and intuitive responses while System 2 provides slow and thoughtful responses. Since the late 1990s, such dual-process theories, which posit two different types of processing – variously categorized as fast and slow, feeling and thinking, automatic and controlled, intuitive and deliberate, and so on – have grown in popularity. However, over the years, dual-process models have faced tremendous criticism and the time is apt for a relook at these models.

An important shortcoming of dual-process models is the requirement that multiple dimensions such as fast and slow, feeling and thinking, automatic and controlled, unconscious and conscious, align perfectly so that fast = feeling = automatic = unconscious, and slow = thinking = controlled = conscious. This is neither theoretically tenable nor empirically sustained, despite accounting for pathbreaking research in marketing. The current research proposes a re(de)fined model using two different dimensions: a) affective and cognitive (emotional and rational) and b) conscious and unconscious. The seminar will focus on how the novel four-process model, termed the ACCU model, integrates findings from psychology and neuroscience to overcome issues associated with dual-process models and develop implications for consumer research. Beyond consumer research, this model has implications for other domains of research that are founded on psychology. This seminar was based on Prof. Priya’s research that won the AMS Review-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Competition for Conceptual Articles 2021. The manuscript is currently under review at a leading consumer research journal.