Daniel Kahneman’s theory of the two selves is a really useful concept for research

He explains that we have an experiencing self and a remembering self. His work shows how the remembering self is often deemed more important by people that the experiencing self, and that the remembering self is liable to biases that mean we don’t always make great choices, and that our memories are distorted.

For example…we recall how things felt just towards the end of an experience, and use that memory to decide if we want to repeat the experience again.

It’s important to know this and to think about these two selves when we are designing research. Do we want to access the experiencing self? – if so we need to be with people in the moment, or designing research to recreate the experience, or do we want to understand the remembering self – the values and experiences of products, services, experiences that people carry around with them? If that’s the case, then its fine to talk to people about what they think about a brand and what it’s like to be a shopper…

Both are valid, both are useful, but they are different and we should bear in mind these two sides of our selves – and understand too, the bias towards our remembering selves in decision making.