Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

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Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 219

The 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 by

information 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 employees

a 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

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