University at Buffalo School of Management

Autumn 2026 Buffalo Business 9 What does that mean for traditional research methods like surveys and focus groups? MKS: It means they're telling you part of the story. We had a client recently ask why his focus group research was never predictive of what happened in the market. The answer was that you asked people to tell you what they were going to do, and people always overstate their behav- ior change. We tracked one company's customers over four months aer they said they'd change their behavior, but 80-90% just kept doing what they were already doing. They can't help it. It's habit. JH: There are about 260 products the average household buys on repeat, and they keep buying them because it's easy and they've come to trust those things. The challenge for marketers is that you can't just ask people if they'll change. You have to watch what they actually do. So how do you get at what people won't or can't tell you? MKS: That's where our Behavioral Research Lab comes in. Instead of asking people what they notice, we can see what they actually looked at. We bounce infrared light off their eyes to track exactly what they're looking at on a website, a package or an ad. We've seen situations where someone looks directly at a button and doesn't click it, scrolls past a second instance of that same button and only finds it on the third try. That's a design problem you'd never catch with a survey. We also record participant faces and use AI to code the emotions they're displaying in real time. We learn when they express confusion, disgust, surprise and other emotions. Galvanic skin response is another tool. It measures sweat response as a proxy for emotional arousal. Recently we were running a study for a spice company and went to remove the sensor from a student's hand, and it was soaking wet. When I asked what he'd experienced, he said the brand reminded him of grilling with his father, whom he'd missed since starting school. He had no conscious awareness of that response. That's the kind of insight you simply cannot get by asking someone how they feel about a product. What's one thing business leaders consistently get wrong about how their customers make decisions? JH: They assume customers think the way they do. We see it constantly; a team will look at their own website and say they know exactly how to navigate it, and then watch customers get completely lost. MKS: Marketers also tend to get caught up in features when customers think in benefits. I don't really care how many songs a device holds, I want to know how many hours of listening pleasure before the battery dies. That reframe changes everything. A lot of the time businesses aren't offering something that's actually better than what consumers already have. They're building a solution in search of a problem. What's one piece of practical advice you'd give to every marketing professional based on what you know about decision making? JH: Do more research. Don't assume. It doesn't take a massive sample, just ask people how they would use your product. And then actually listening to the answer can be revelatory. MKS: And test before you launch. Whether you're appeal- ing to fear, humor, disgust or other emotions, these tools can be extraordinarily powerful or catastrophic depend- ing on the execution. You think edgy content will have stopping power, but it oen has shutdown power. People don't push back, they just stop seeing it entirely. The brain avoids what makes it uncomfortable. Understanding that is the foundation of good marketing. F A C U LT Y E X P E R T S D I S C U S S C U R R E N T E V E N T S Trending Topics THE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT'S BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH LAB The science behind decisions The behavioral lab uses cutting-edge neuromarketing tools to uncover insights into human behavior. Though eye-tracking, facial coding and galvanic skin response, the lab empowers students, faculty and exter- nal collaborators with state-of-the-art resources to conduct research that makes a tangible impact in the real world. To learn more, visit management.buffalo.edu/behaviorlab. P A R T N E R C O M P A N I E S

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