Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Aids to Audience Decision Making 153

A large sample study of magazine advertising inserts fi nds that titles and section headings are

often the only verbal elements of ad inserts to be attended to and read. About half of the consum-

ers who received the ad inserts did not read them at all. Of the 50% who read an insert, most read

only the insert’s headlines.^61 A study of employees reading documents related to their work fi nds

that employees normally fail to identify or recall any topics that are not refl ected in the documents’

section headings.^62

Informative section headings are especially likely to increase readers’ attention to and

recall of information in a document.^63 In a test of the effects of informative section headings,

consumers received four warranties for new TVs written in plain English that had no section

headings and four warranties that included informative section headings. The section head-

ings used were: “Who was covered? What was covered? What was not covered? What the

manufacturer will do and for how long. What you must do. How to get warranty service.”

Although there was no difference in the time it took the consumers to read the warranties

or in their comprehension of them, 90% of the consumers indicated that the warranties with

informative section headings motivated them to pay attention to and use the information in

the warranties.^64

A study of print ads investigated the effects of incorporating consumers’ decision criteria into

the ads’ headlines. After fi nding that scent was a decision criterion consumers used to select cook-

ing oils, the study’s author tested an ad headline for a fi ctitious brand of oil that read “Pleasantly

Scented Cooper’s Cooking Oil.” The presence of a decision criterion for the product class in the

ad’s headline facilitated recall of that criterion and inhibited recall of other decision criteria for both

expert and novice consumers of cooking oils. The author concludes that the format, rather than

the content, of an ad directs attention and determines the decision criteria, or product attributes,

consumers will recall later.^65

Typographic Cues

Typographic cues can attract readers’ attention as long as they are not overused.^66 For example,

selective use of big print draws attention to keywords. It also enhances recall.^67 Printing warnings in

bigger, bolder type than the other text in owner’s manuals draws readers’ attention to the warnings

and leads to improved memory for them.^68

In most contexts, boldface type attracts attention even more than upper-case type.^69 Used

correctly, boldface is not only an effective attention-getting technique, it can also help readers com-

prehend information and follow directions more accurately.^70 Information in boldface is processed

longer and recalled better than information in ordinary type.^71 Moreover, a normal level of boldface

can be read as quickly as ordinary type.^72 Like boldface, italic type increases readers’ attention to the

text and the depth to which they process it.^73

Selective color coding can also draw readers’ attention to important ideas.^74 Color coding warn-

ings increases their noticeability as well as the likelihood they will be read.^75 Color coding graphs

can both increase attention to graphic elements and aid the audience’s comprehension and recall by

making key parts of the graphs perceptually salient.^76

As a general rule, readers pay attention to contrast among typographic elements.^77 The use of

too many different highlighting techniques can be confusing and can impair readers’ understand-

ing of the text.^78 When typographic cues are overdone, they may even have the opposite effect as

was intended. For example, the extensive use of italic in continuous prose may make nonitalicized

words more attention getting than the italicized words.^79