Emotional decision-making: How qual research reveals the power of System 1 thinking

By Molly Wright, Director, Enterprise Partnerships at Suzy

As a Strategic Sales Director, and self-proclaimed “wrecking ball for qual,” I LOVE finding ways to weave qualitative research into a learning plan so that my clients are empowered with not only the “what,” but also the magical “why” behind the information we are learning. I’m also a hypnotherapist, so my fondness for qualitative approaches is deeply connected to my passion for harnessing the power of the subconscious.

But that blend is exactly why I care so much about unlocking what’s really happening beneath the surface. Because in hypnosis and in consumer purchasing behavior, the same truth shows up again and again: people are not as rational as they think they are. Our choices are shaped by system 1 thinking, which is fast, intuitive, emotionally driven, and often invisible to us. This is where the power of qualitative research shines and where asking the right questions and understanding the emotional drivers behind answers becomes critical.

I’m also keenly aware of how often key insights can get lost or overlooked in a presentation. Here’s a familiar scenario: Your team executes beautiful qualitative research, has strong conversations and unearths deep insights around a key unmet need or tension. The team is excited, the deck is built, but then it’s presented to leadership and it falls flat. Part of the art behind good qualitative research is telling a compelling story that brings your leadership and internal stakeholders into the conversation with the consumer and makes their human truth impossible to ignore. That’s where tools like Suzy Speaks shine, because they help brands capture authentic, voice-based conversations and turn them into decision-ready narratives through automated AI analysis and supercharged by Suzy’s expert researchers.

System 1 thinking: the real decision-maker in the room

If you want to understand why people buy, why they switch, and why they stay loyal, you have to understand how decisions are actually made.

Two modes of thinking, one mode of buying

Dual-process theory is a widely referenced way to describe how humans make judgments and decisions. In simple terms, we have a fast, intuitive mode and a slower, deliberate mode. The APA Dictionary of Psychology describes dual-process theory as involving intuitive decision-making and rational decision-making. That’s the backbone of what most people mean when they refer to “System 1” and “System 2.”

In consumer life, System 2 shows up when someone is evaluating a feature stack, reading reviews, or comparing prices.

System 1 shows up when someone says:

• “This feels like me.”
• “I trust this brand.”
• “I don’t know why, but I want it.”

And here’s the twist: even when buyers think they’re being purely logical, System 1 is still shaping what they notice, what they dismiss, what they value and what they perceive as safe, exciting, or risky.

The subconscious runs the show 

Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman has famously argued that the vast majority of purchase decision-making happens in the subconscious. In an HBS Working Knowledge Q&A, the article notes his statement that “95 percent” of purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious.

Do we need to treat that as an exact measurement? No. But we should treat it as a directional truth: subconscious thinking is massively influential, and traditional “tell me why you chose that” questions often force people to rationalize what they felt.

That’s why our proprietary technology for analysis of Suzy Speaks projects leverages both manifest analysis and latent analysis:

• Manifest analysis: Deductive reasoning to identify emergent themes
• Latent analysis: Inductive reasoning to layer in meaning for emergent themes based on the context of your study’s research objective

Emotion is not irrational, it is functional

As a hypnotherapist, it is easy to see patterns emerge, session after session, and these same patterns emerge in qualitative research, too. Human behavior isn’t random and it isn’t logical, it’s protective, identity-driven, comfort-seeking, and deeply emotional.

In other words: feeling is not the enemy of thinking. It is often the shortcut that makes thinking possible.

Why qualitative research is the fastest path to deeper emotion

If System 1 is fast, instinctive, and often subconscious, then we need methods that meet consumers where they are and how they access their experiences.

Why “what” is easy and “why” is hard

Surveys are excellent at telling you:

• what happened
• how many people did it
• which option “won”

But surveys often struggle to tell you:

• why it happened
• what emotional job the product is doing
• what fear, tension, identity, or aspiration is shaping the choice

That’s exactly why qualitative approaches matter. They let people tell you the story of their lived experience, not just choose an answer from your list of options.

Suzy’s team makes a similar point in their foundational research guidance: quant can tell you what is happening, but it rarely tells you why, or reveals “the emotional logic behind decisions.”

The power of voice: what consumers say, and how they say it

When people speak, they reveal more than content. They reveal timing, hesitation, confidence, and emotional texture.

A Frontiers in Neuroscience review explains that emotions in spoken words are conveyed via verbal and non-verbal channels, and discusses how aspects like voice tone and intensity can carry emotional category information, while more fine-grained cues unfold over time.

That’s not academic trivia. That is a practical research advantage.

Suzy repeatedly highlights this exact dynamic, describing how Suzy Speaks captures tone, cadence, and emotion in voice-based feedback.

If you want to understand subconscious thinking, voice is a direct line to the moment before the rational edit.

The challenge: qual at scale without losing the human truth

Let’s be honest: the classic critique of qual is not that it’s not valuable. It’s that it’s “too small”,  “too slow” and “too expensive”.

And historically, that critique has been fair; until now.

One of the most cited practical questions in qualitative work is: how many interviews are enough?

In a well-known Field Methods study, Guest, Bunce, and Johnson used 60 in-depth interviews and documented how themes emerged over time in analysis. The paper is widely referenced in discussions of saturation.

More recent methodological discussions also emphasize that “saturation” is not a magic number. It depends on homogeneity, objectives, and what kind of saturation you mean (codes vs. meaning). A PLOS One paper on assessing and reporting thematic saturation summarizes prior findings and discusses practical approaches to evaluating saturation transparently.

The takeaway for modern teams is not “12 interviews solves it.” The takeaway is: you need a plan that balances depth with breadth, and you need to know what you’re optimizing for.

Scaling conversations changes what is possible

This is where conversational research platforms can fundamentally change the game.

Suzy Speaks is positioned around delivering voice-based consumer feedback “at scale,” while maintaining depth and nuance. You no longer need to choose between depth and rigor and you can maximize budget. 

This reflects a real shift: brands can now run many simultaneous conversations, capture richer emotional expression, and compress timelines that used to be measured in weeks.

Don’t scale at the expense of the participant

One caution: when you scale qualitative inputs, it becomes even more important to protect respondent experience.

At Suzy we have explicitly addressed participant care in conversational research, emphasizing that growth in conversational methods should still prioritize the person on the other side of the prompt.

Because the fastest way to flatten deeper emotion is to make participants feel rushed, confused, or stressed.

Emotion analytics: structure for feeling, not a replacement for listening

Once you’ve captured rich, human feedback, the next challenge is making it usable across stakeholders.

That’s where emotion analytics comes in.

Sentiment is not emotion

Sentiment analysis often collapses experience into positive, negative, or neutral.

But humans don’t feel in three buckets. They feel:

• relief
• pride
• resentment
• embarrassment
• nostalgia
• apprehension
• belonging

And those differences are exactly what drives behavior.

One reason emotion analytics has advanced quickly is the availability of datasets that train models to recognize a wider range of emotional signals. Google Research’s GoEmotions dataset includes 58k Reddit comments labeled with 27 emotion categories, designed for fine-grained emotion classification. 

That kind of taxonomy is useful because it mirrors what marketers and researchers actually need: more nuance instead of just “good vs bad.”

How to use emotion analytics responsibly in qual workflows

Emotion analytics is powerful when it’s used as:

• triage (where should a researcher look first?)
• pattern-spotting (which moments are spiking with frustration, delight, uncertainty?)
• storytelling support (how do we show the emotional arc, not just the verbatims?)

It is risky when it’s used as:

• a replacement for human interpretation
• a way to “auto-decide” what people meant without context
• a dashboard that removes the lived story

The best teams treat emotion analytics like an assistant. It can highlight emotional hotspots, but humans still validate meaning.

Storytelling: turning insight into decisions people will actually make

Now we get to the part that separates “interesting” from “impactful.”

A hard truth: stakeholders don’t remember themes, they remember people

One reason storytelling works so well in qualitative readouts is that it mirrors how humans naturally process meaning.

Harvard Business Review has written about the growth impact when companies connect with customer emotions, including examples where emotionally oriented initiatives correlated with major performance lifts (like increased use, account growth, and accelerated sales growth). 

Even if you never quote those numbers in a deck, the strategic lesson that stands out is that emotion is not a soft metric, it is often THE strongest differentiating metric.

The “consumer story arc” framework for qual readouts

Here’s a simple structure we’ve seen work well:

1. The Setup (context)
   
   • Who is the consumer?
   • What situation are they in?
   • What are they trying to accomplish?
2. The Tension (the emotional barrier)
   
   • What fear, friction, uncertainty, or identity tension is present?
   • Where does subconscious thinking show up?
3. The Turning Point (the trigger)
   
   • What makes them choose Brand A, not Brand B?
   • What moment creates trust, excitement, relief, or belonging?
4. The Resolution (the implication)
   
   • What should we do differently?
   • What message, experience, or product change reduces tension or amplifies reward?

A practical playbook to unlock subconscious thinking in your next study

If you want to capture deeper emotion and make it usable, here are a few question strategies that consistently work.

Ask for a moment, not an opinion

Instead of: “Do you like this brand?”

Try:

• “Tell me about the last time you chose it. What was going on that day?”
• “What would have to happen for you to switch, even once?”

Moments contain context. Context contains emotion.

Use metaphor prompts to bypass the rational filter

This echoes the kind of metaphor-driven probing Zaltman discusses as a way to surface hidden meanings.

Try:

• “If this brand were a person, who would it be?”
• “If this product had a voice, what would it say to you?”
• “What does this feel like: a reward, a routine, a relief, a risk?”

Build an “emotional arc” into your analysis

When reviewing responses, map:

• the trigger (what starts the decision)
• the tension (what makes it hard)
• the payoff (what emotion the brand delivers)

This is emotion analytics in its simplest form, even if you never label it that way.

Conclusion: The shopping cart is never just a shopping cart

Take a moment and think through your most recent shopping experience online or in-person. Were you hosting a party for friends that you wanted to impress? Did you have family you were hosting for the holidays and wanted to include some nostalgic favorites? Maybe you decided that 2026 is YOUR year to eat clean and be more healthy so you can be more active. Just think of how many different emotions were connected to that experience. Did you find what you were looking for easily? Was the price higher than expected, and did that worry you? Were reviews accurate? You can see how quickly we trip into emotional territory.  Our world is changing at a pace that we have not experienced before, and our brains are bombarded with a constant stream of information that is competing for the same real-estate.  

This is why qualitative research remains so powerful. It helps us hear the subconscious thinking beneath the surface, capture deeper emotion as it actually shows up, and then translate it into storytelling that guides better decisions. And when you can do that with speed and qual at scale, you stop choosing between rigor and relevance, and lean into the power of empathy-led insight. 

Want to see what real-time, voice-based research looks like in action? Tap into a deeper, more intuitive layer of consumer behavior with Suzy Speaks and book a demo today.