Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Aids to Audience Decision Making 175

Although attribute-based processing affords many advantages, most audience members, espe-

cially those who are novices, generally acquire and process information in the order in which they

receive it.^297 When criteria for deciding among several alternatives are displayed simultaneously,

audiences tend to process by attribute. But when alternatives are displayed sequentially (as they are

in newspaper advertisements for competing brands), audiences tend to process by alternative.^298

Audiences process information in the order it is presented to reduce the cognitive effort involved

in decision making.^299 A study of the eye movements of consumers reading product packages

fi nds that package formats make processing by alternative easier. In that study, fully 50% of the

consumers’ eye transitions were by brand (i.e., using alternative-based processing) and only 17%

by attribute.^300 Unfortunately, alternative-based organization, as found in package formats and

point-of-purchase displays, hinders the ability of consumers to make product comparisons and

negatively affects their ability to choose the best product.^301

Decision Matrices

One format that facilitates attribute-based decision making is the matrix format.^302 Although

matrices are usually displayed as tables, both documents and presentations can refl ect the matrix

format and promote attribute-based processing if they address each decision criterion in the expert

audience’s schema one by one.

Note that all of the revised documents and effective presentation slides reproduced in this book,

to a greater or lesser extent, refl ect a decision matrix in verbal form. When done right, the deci-

sion criteria from the audience’s schema become the document’s or slide presentation’s outline.

Keywords from the audience’s decision criteria are incorporated in section headings or slide titles.

Paragraphs, charts, and bullet points answer the audience’s questions about each criterion and pro-

vide benchmark information for evaluating the recommended alternative.

Consumers almost always process by attribute when information about unfamiliar brands is

displayed in a matrix format.^303 They also make better decisions when they do. When pricing

information for competing brands is displayed in a matrix format in grocery stores, the average

consumers saves about 2% more than when they view the same pricing information displayed on

separate tags for each item.^304

The matrix format outperforms other formats in terms of reducing the time it takes audiences to

make a good decision. In a test of the matrix format, 60 MBA students were asked to choose the best

loan application from different sets of eight loan applications. Each set of applications described four

relevant attributes or criteria and presented them in six different ways: organized either as a matrix or as

a list, with values expressed in either verbal or numeric form, and arranged in either a sorted or random

sequence. The matrix versus list organization strongly infl uenced the MBAs’ information-acquisition

process and provided the largest benefi t in terms of the time required to make a good decision.^305

Another benefi t of the matrix format is that it promotes rational as opposed to intuitive or emo-

tional decision making. When evaluating options separately, audience members tend to prefer the

most emotionally vivid option.^306 But when audience members compare options simultaneously

in a matrix format, they are more likely to engage in logical, deliberate processing and thus to make

more rational decisions.^307 They are also more likely to become aware that relevant information is

missing and to correct any evaluation errors they previously made.^308

Switching the format from a sequential one to a simultaneous overview of all the relevant

information, as the matrix format provides, also reduces the confi rmation bias.^309 When audience

members access attributes about each alternative in a sequence, the current best alternative distorts

their view of the next attribute. Simultaneous presentation of all attribute values for multiple alter-

natives, on the other hand, reduces such distortion.^310 Unfortunately, the matrix format does not

eliminate all bias from audience decisions. In fact, product comparison matrices actually create one