Projective techniques

Research procedures designed to identify consumers’ subconscious feelings and motivations. These tests often require consumers to interpret ambiguous stimuli such as incomplete sentences, cartoons, or inkblots. In projective techniques, respondents are asked to interpret the behaviour of others rather than describe their own behaviour. In interpreting the behaviour of others, respondents indirectly project their own motivations, beliefs, attitudes or feelings. Thus, the respondents’ attitudes are uncovered by analyzing their responses to scenarios that are deliberately unstructured, vague and ambiguous.