Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 219The Negativity Bias: The Impact of Negative Information
As politicians know, negative campaign ads work. One negative fact about their opponent can
outweigh 10 positive attributes. Although audiences will not judge a person’s character on the basis
of one socially desirable behavior, they will judge a person on the basis of one behavior they deem
socially undesirable.^115 In fact, one negative adjective describing a person can contribute more to
an audience’s overall impression of that person than many positive adjectives.^116 Similarly, one piece
of negative information about a fi rm can have a greater impact on a job seeker’s intentions to apply
for a job there than many pieces of positive information about it.^117
The reason negative information has such a powerful persuasive impact is that it is salient: Audi-ences pay attention to negative information because they tend to take positive information for
granted.^118 Thus, the salience of negative information leads audiences to weight it more heavily
than positive information and creates a bias called the negativity bias.^119 Although making alterna-
tives with positive attributes more salient biases the audience to favor them, making alternatives
with negative attributes more salient has the opposite effect.^120
Outlier Effects: The Impact of Unusual Behaviors and Events
Unusual behaviors and events are more salient and attention getting than routine ones and
have a greater persuasive impact on audience decisions. Audiences remember unusual events
and behaviors better than ones that are routine and thus give them more weight when predict-
ing future events and behaviors.^121 For example, if someone sees a person giving an unusually
generous tip, she will remember that event and use it to predict the size of the person’s future
tips.^122
In addition, audiences will be more persuaded by information related to unusual events than byinformation about events they consider to be normal. For example, when the audience thinks get-
ting a fl u shot is normal, they are more persuaded by information about the negative consequences
of not getting vaccinated.^123 When the audience views not getting a fl u shot as normal, they are
more persuaded by information about the positive consequences of getting vaccinated.
Explicit Language Effects: The Impact of Specifi city
Explicit language, with its many specifi c details, is conceptually salient and captures attention.
For this reason, audiences are more likely to be persuaded by explicit language than by vague or
implicit language. A study of verbal claims in advertisements found that explicit verbal claims
led consumers to have more favorable attitudes toward the advertised brands than implicit claims.
For example, explicit claims such as “Affordably priced at $7.99 per six pack” and “Winner of
5 out of 5 taste tests in the US against all major American beers and leading imports” led them
to form very favorable opinions. Implicit claims, on the other hand, such as “Affordably priced”
and “Great taste” had little impact on the consumers’ attitudes.^124
Explicit language has been shown to affect other audience decisions as well. Giving employeesa specifi c date for receiving a future payment increases their patience and reduces the likelihood
they will discount the future value of the payments.^125 Providing consumers with specifi c versus
vague product cost savings in comparative ads leads them to infer that the advertised brand offers
cost savings on its services as well.^126 A study of mock jurors fi nds that when the testimony of
the prosecution’s eyewitness is highly detailed and explicit, mock jurors are more likely to fi nd the
defendant guilty than when their testimony leaves a lot to the imagination.^127