Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Audience Decision-Making Expertise 23

Decision Schemata of Novice Audiences

Novices’ Less Well-Developed Decision Schemata

Important differences have been discovered between expert and novice consumers and the way

they make decisions.^161 Important differences have been discovered between many other expert and

novice audiences and how they make decisions as well.^162 Interestingly, expert and novice decision

makers differ not only at the cognitive level, but also at the neurological level. Neuroscientists fi nd

evidence that expertise leads to a functional reorganization of the brain.^163 When making a deci-

sion that falls within their domain of expertise, expert audience members activate different brain

systems than novices activate.^164

At the cognitive level, the most fundamental difference between expert and novice audiences is

that, in contrast to experts, novice audiences come to documents, presentations, and group meetings

without well-developed or appropriate schemata in mind.^165 In fact, most expert/novice differ-

ences can be attributed to “quantitative and qualitative differences in their respective stores of

relevant problem schemas.”^166

Thus, novice audience members may lack the well-formed and matrix-like decision schemata

they need to make a good decision. Instead of a matrix-like schema, a novice’s schema may consist

of a simple list of reasons for the alternative they prefer and against the alternative they dislike.

If the novice has more experience, her schema may consist of a random list of pros and cons for

several alternatives.^167 Unlike experts who attempt to estimate each alternative’s overall value along

a specifi c set of dimensions or decision criteria, novices try to fi nd unique reasons for and against

each alternative they consider.^168

Not surprisingly, novice audiences employ fewer decision criteria when making a decision than

experts.^169 For example, novice consumers of insurance evoke fewer decision criteria than experts

when trying to choose the best insurance policy.^170 Novice consumers of newspapers search for

information about fewer attributes, or decision criteria, than more knowledgeable consumers when

choosing among newspapers.^171 Even when information pertinent to an expert’s decision criteria is

provided to them in ads (e.g., the fact that a computer has 8GB SDRAM), novice consumers may

neglect to process it.^172 Unless given incentives, novices will process only the benefi t information

ads contain (e.g., the computer is “Great for gamers”).

Even when novice audiences apply the decision criteria experts possess, they may not weight

those criteria appropriately. For example, novice investors weight the decision criteria provided

by fi nancial analysts’ forecasts less appropriately than expert investors.^173 Novice consumers give

more weight to nonfunctional dimensions of products such as the brand name and packaging than

expert consumers.^174 Because novices lack the prestored decision criteria that experts possess, they

sometimes try, without much success, to create them.^175

Novice audiences also use fewer benchmarks and make fewer comparisons than experts when

making decisions. Novice consumers of insurance are less likely to make pair-wise comparisons

of one policy to another than experts.^176 Novice consumers in general make fewer comparisons

because they have less knowledge about alternative products, an important category of benchmarks,

than expert consumers.^177 Novice fi nancial analysts are less likely to compare a fi rm’s fi nancials to

internal norms or benchmarks than expert analysts.^178 Even when novice audiences have access

to the benchmarks that experts rely on, they may not use them. A study of consumers reading

comparative and noncomparative ads in order to choose among brands fi nds that, unlike the expert

consumers, novice consumers fail to use the comparative product information comparative ads

provide.^179