Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 215

Attention-Related Heuristics and Biases

The Vividness and Salience Heuristics

Audiences often neglect to use important information in decision making and instead use less

important information when the less important information is presented in a more attention-getting

way.^91 One reason stimuli attract attention is that they are vivid. Stimuli that are vivid, such as many

graphs and images, are intrinsically attention getting. So it is not surprising that venture capitalists

often cite the use of graphs as an important characteristic of a good business plan.^92

When audiences such as venture capitalists allow the vividness of a stimulus to infl uence their

decisions, they can be said to be using the vividness heuristic. Audiences use the vividness heuristic

when their subjective experience of selectively attending to vivid information leads them to prefer

it more, weight it more heavily, be more confi dent in it, or fi nd it more persuasive than equally

relevant or more relevant but pallid information that is not attention getting.^93

Another reason stimuli attract attention is because they are salient, that is to say, because they

are different from the norm.^94 Any unexpected or surprising stimulus is salient.^95 Audiences use

the salience heuristic when their subjective experience of having their attention attracted to salient

information leads them to prefer it or fi nd it more persuasive than nonsalient information. The

salience heuristic is this text’s term for the heuristic sometimes called the surprise heuristic.^96 The

surprise heuristic explains surprise in terms of salience: the extent to which a stimulus stands out

from the norm and attracts attention relative to other stimuli in its environment.

Vivid Language Effects: The Persuasive Impact of Concrete Words

Audiences are more likely to be persuaded by vivid writing and speaking styles than by pallid ones.

Messages presented in a vivid style—with concrete words and easily visualized phrases—are more

persuasive than the same messages presented in a bland or abstract way.^97 For example, people are

willing to pay more for airline travel insurance covering death from “terrorist acts” than for the

more pallid but more comprehensive insurance covering death from “all possible causes.”^98 Vivid

concrete claims in print ads produce more defi nite intentions to buy the advertised product than

abstract claims.^99 Vivid health and fear appeals are more persuasive than pallid ones.^100

In a study of mock jurors deciding a drunk-driving case, half of the mock jurors read vivid (i.e.,

concrete and image-provoking) prosecution arguments and pallid (i.e., abstract and bland) defense

arguments. The other jurors read pallid prosecution arguments and vivid defense arguments. Ini-

tially, the decisions of the two groups were the same, but after a 48-hour delay, the jurors who read

the vivid prosecution arguments judged the defendant as more likely to be guilty. On the other

hand, the jurors who read the vivid defense arguments judged the defendant as more likely to be

innocent.^101 In a similar study mock jurors in a civil trial watched video recordings of witnesses

testifying about the concrete foundation of a recently constructed building. Witnesses described

the foundation using either vivid phrases such as “a spider web of cracks” and “a jagged slab” or

pallid phrases such as “a network of cracks” and “a rough slab.” Mock jurors’ verdicts and damage

awards favored the side with the vivid testimonies.^102

Vivid Image Effects: The Persuasive Impact of Images

Vivid pictures and graphics can have a bigger persuasive impact than words or numbers.^103 For

example, trends in employees’ performance displayed in a graphic format have a greater impact on

managers’ evaluations of employees than the same information expressed in a table.^104