Aids to Audience Decision Making 181persuasiveness of those arguments.^404 Irrelevant information added to product benefi ts information
reduces consumers’ beliefs about the product’s benefi ts even when consumers acknowledge the
irrelevance of the information.^405
In group decision making, nondiagnostic, or irrelevant, information produces a dilutive effecton group decisions similar to its effect on individual decisions.^406 Even explicit instructions to dis-
criminate between relevant and irrelevant information do not reduce the dilution effect. Rather, the
dilution effect disappears only when the group actively removes irrelevant pieces of information
from view before making a judgment.^407
The think-aloud remarks in Table 4.4, made by three experts whose comments we also sawin Chapters 1 and 2, reveal the importance of eliminating irrelevant information from business
documents. All three experts express their frustration with the contents of the documents they are
reading. Indeed, many think-aloud studies show that the presence of irrelevant information in busi-
ness documents is pervasive and a chief complaint of expert audiences. Notice that the experienced
board member dismisses as irrelevant Sections 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of the GM strategic plan, a plan
that consisted of only 11 sections to begin with.
Inconsistent information can also have an adverse effect on the audience’s information inte-gration process. Inconsistent information takes longer to integrate because of the extra time the
audience needs to notice and interpret the inconsistency.^408 Inconsistent information also annoys
and confuses audience members, as was the case with the experienced board member who read the
strategic plan from GM:
- They say they have a bad service record. Well, that’s related to saying that they have
low-quality products. But above they say their strength is high-quality products. So I’m
thoroughly confused.
The following two versions of the beginning of an MBA team’s strategic plan illustrate theimportance of using techniques that can aid the audience’s information-acquisition and informa-
tion-integration processes. The revision provides side-by-side comparisons, or benchmarks, for
each quantity it mentions. Thus, the audience can see immediately which important metrics
have improved or will improve, and by how much, and will be less likely to ask for or search for that
TABLE 4.4 Expert Audiences Are Frustrated by Unnecessary Information
Expert investor reading the original Smartphone MBA business plan
- Etcetera, etcetera.
- Etcetera, etcetera.
- Blah, blah, blah.
Expert investor reading the fi nancial analyst’s report on Georgia Gulf
- Etcetera. I’m skimming it, because that’s what I would have done three pages ago.
- This report is very lengthy. I don’t need to know or care how they make these chemicals. What I want
to know is: “Is it profi table? Why is it profi table? What are their advantages?” If it’s important to be
technical because they have an advantage in a certain process, that’s fi ne. But if they make it the same way
everybody else does, I really don’t care.
Experienced board member reading the strategic plan from General Motors
- This environmental scan chart in Section 2 is something that I’ve not seen before. I’m looking at x’s. I’m
looking at the words “Market, Economics, Technical and Social.” It’s ranked from negative to positive on an
attractiveness scale. Models like this don’t impress me, because in my opinion, they are examples of a lot of
information with no knowledge. I’ve seen all this data, now what do I do with it? - The data in Sections 4 and 5 is superfl uous and backup, as is the data in Section 6, and the data in
Sections 7 and 8. As I said before, Section 9 is not useful to me.