Snowmen are better than people. (Okay, that’s unrelated to my point, but while we’re on a tangent … are you aware that there is a series of shorts called Olaf Presents in which he acts out The Little Mermaid, Moana, the Lion King, Aladdin and Tangled? In addition, there’s the 2020 masterpiece At Home with Olaf which are cinematic jewels released during the stay-at-home-era.)
Squirrels are better than people when it comes to decision-making. They’re rational and consistent, even though they may appear somewhat haphazard when playing in traffic. (I said they were rational as consumers; I didn’t say they are geniuses.)
Unlike squirrels, human consumers vary their tastes and preferences, plus individuals are fickle and inconsistent, even internally. Case in point: chocolate is my favorite, but today I want vanilla. Chocolate is still my favorite, but let me see both options side by side … hmmm, I don’t know which one I want right now. My favorite is available — it’s right there. And like I mentioned … it is my favorite, but what is that new, unknown flavor right there? Should I try that instead?
Squirrels, in contrast, are consistent; we failed to measure heterogeneity in consumer tastes/preferences among squirrels during our studies. They did, at times, select different things, but they were the correct things for that squirrel in that time and place, and they didn’t vary across squirrels. Squirrels are unbelievably consistent ‘shoppers’ for food; in fact, they shop properly for eating versus storing (caching) and for the time of year.
I recently talked through squirrels as food shoppers …
Inspired by Eastern gray squirrels are consistent shoppers of seed traits; insights from discrete choice experiments by Mekala Sundaram, Nathanael Lichti, Nicole Olynk Widmar, and Robert Swihart
ConsumerCorner.2023.Letter.05
