Moving Minds is a groundbreaking study that groups home movers into tribes according to their move motivations. It explores what these motivations tell us about each tribe’s mindset and investigates the behavioural psychology behind how this impacts decision making and purchasing behaviour.

We’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know these eight tribes. Recently we headed to the family home of the Shepherd family, our Nurturers from Bromsgrove... 

Nurturers have young families and as a result, their primary focus is on providing the best upbringing possible for their children.  For them, the home is a critical part of ensuring their family is happy and content, so they need a home with enough space for their family to develop and grow.

However, their absolute focus on family places a huge draw on their own time, energy and income, meaning they have little quality time to themselves.

What are their behaviours?

With so much time and energy expended on family, nurturers have little time to sit, ponder and analyse every decision. Circumstances dictate they act quickly and instinctively. But their ‘instinct’ is heavily informed by what others, like them, have done.

This means Nurturers often default to decisions based on what they’ve seen their peers do, or what their peers recommend. These mental shortcuts enable quick and effective decisions, freeing up time and energy to deal with all the challenges family life throws at them.

How does this drive their purchase decisions?

We worked with Professor Richard Crisp, The Head of the Department of Psychology at Durham University to explore what might drive Nurturers spending habits and purchase decisions.

“Nurturers are right in the thick of it, juggling all the demands of a young family. So, they’re probably making buying decisions when they are tired, have a lot of other things on their mind, and they don’t have a lot of time.

These are precisely the conditions under which Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman suggests people employ ‘fast’ thinking (i.e., relying on gut-feeling or mental shortcuts to make quick decisions). Nurturers may, therefore, employ a whole range of these shortcuts when making buying decisions.

For instance, past buying behaviour can become a strong predictor of future buying behaviour, as they tend to stick with brands they know. But if they’re buying something new, role-models may become reliable guides for what to buy, especially when those role models are similar to themselves or demonstrate shared experiences.

 Social media is likely to be influential, as are goods and services that are – or are marketed as – easy to use. Nurturers probably don’t have a lot of time to read instruction manuals.

 In sum, Nurturers are likely having to think fast, but seem to have a strong tendency towards actualising their family identity.”

Download the full whitepaper to find out more about Moving Minds and our seven other tribes.