Addressing Disturbing and Disturbed Consumer Behavior: Is it Necessary to Change the Way We Conduct Behavioral Science?

Many of the most important problems faced by society today involve choices people make (e.g., high-fat diets, smoking, drinking and driving). Behavioral scientists in psychology and marketing can contribute to the solution of these problems through altruistic marketing. Altruistic marketing involves: (1) conducting basic behavioral research to expand our understanding of disturbing and disturbed consumer behavior and the ways to correct it and/or (2) applying behavioral research to develop effective treatment interventions and new ways to implement more effectively what is already known (and what will be known) about the maladaptive consumer behavior that contributes to social problems, morbidity, and mortality. Unfortunately, marketing scientists have been encouraged to abandon basic, theoretically guided laboratory paradigms to address important applied questions and social problems. Yet, marketing scientists can make critical contributions to understanding the basic mechanisms underlying consumer behavior, and traditional laboratory research can be an essential part of this enterprise. We reinforce the need for greater focus on maladaptive consumer behavior and its remediation, and we discuss the role of theoretical thinking and traditional laboratory studies in problem-oriented research. We conclude that Kurt Lewin's erudite two-part maxim-there is nothing so practical as a good theory and there is nothing so stimulating of good theory as an important social problem-stands as a luminous beacon for the field of altruistic marketing.