ABSTRACT
You have gone to an electrical superstore to buy a new washing machinethere is a bewildering array of options, but eventually you choose one. How do you make that final decision? Which factors are most important? After you have made your choice, the salesperson offers you the chance to buy an extended warranty on your chosen product. Do you take up this offer or not-what factors sway your decision? You are at a garage making a final de cision about a secondhand car purchase. What factors would be important in making this decision? Would you buy the extended warranty or take the credit deal offered by the salesman? Purchasing decisions such as these are made every day by large numbers of consumers. We have developed a method for tracing people's thought processes as they think about deci sions such as those just described. In this chapter, we briefly explain the main features of the method and discuss possible applications to naturalis tic decision research. Our main objectives are to illustrate the kind of data obtained and to describe and discuss alternative ways of analyzing it. We draw on earlier reports that have evaluated the method and applied it to consumer risk management (Ranyard, Hinkley, & Williamson, 2001; William son, Ranyard, & Cuthbert, 2000a, 2000b).
