McCaslin, Mairi2016-10-202016-10-202016-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2032865 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2016.The idea that conscious rational thought leads to good decision making is one that had pervaded Western thought for centuries. It has also led to a general misconception about the absence of emotion from good decision making and the ability of humans to conduct themselves on the basis of purely rational thought. In a study conducted on millennials at the University of Oregon, subjects were asked to choose one brand of bottled water over two others. Their decisions, the factors involved and their ability to articulate their decision-making process were measured over the course of a two-week period. The results gathered and the hypotheses tested indicated that unconscious emotion was heavily involved in the decision-making process and manifested itself in a variety of different behaviors. This study has greater implications about the way that millennials make product purchasing decisions and the emotional influences involved decision making overall.en-USCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USMarketingBehavioral psychologyDecision makingProduct-purchasing decisionsOrbitofrontal cortexBottled waterAdvertisingBrainThesis / Dissertation