224 Understanding Intuitive Decision Making
A good narrative can outweigh good arguments. In a study of mock jurors, jurors were mostlikely to convict the defendant (78% chose guilty) when the prosecution presented its evidence in
the chronological order of a narrative and the defense presented its evidence in random order as
given by the witnesses. Jurors were least likely to convict when the prosecution presented evidence
in random order and the defense presented it in chronological order (31% chose guilty). When
attorneys on both sides of the case presented evidence in chronological order or both presented
in random order, jurors chose to convict in 59% and 63% of the cases respectively.^171 Consumers
who immerse themselves in the narrative of an ad decrease their tendency to counter-argue the ad’s
implications and are persuaded by the ad independently of the quality of its arguments.^172
A good narrative can also outweigh statistics. In a study of the effect of stories on policy deci-sions, audience members were given written statistical data and a verbal story and then asked to
make policy decisions. Although the statistical data infl uenced the audience’s decisions when it was
used to refute a current organizational policy, stories still tended to have a greater impact on the
audience’s policy decisions.^173 For moderately involved audience members, stories used to support
arguments are at least as persuasive as statistics.^174 In addition to activating causal schemata, nar-
ratives and stories heighten the audience’s emotional reactions to claims, while statistical evidence
heightens the audience’s rational reactions to them.^175
Readability Effects: The Appeal of Simple Words and Sentences
Audiences fi nd information presented in readable, easy-to-comprehend words and sentences to be
more persuasive than the same information presented in a less readable way. A study of graduate
school applications fi nds that admissions offi cers rate applicants as more intelligent and are more
likely to admit them when their essays use simple, easy-to-process words, as opposed to complicated
words.^176
In a study of the effects of syntactic complexity in advertisements on consumers’ attitudestoward the products advertised, consumers were more persuaded by strong arguments in ads than
by weak ones only when the sentences in the ads were syntactically simple.^177 When the sentences
were syntactically complex, consumers’ attitudes were not affected by the arguments’ strength.
Semantic complexity affects consumers’ attitudes as well. Because the semantics of active voice sen-
tences usually makes them easier to comprehend, consumers perceive print ads written in the active
voice to be more believable, appealing, and attractive than similar ads written in the passive voice.^178
Written Modality Effects: The Power of the Written Word
Communication modality—written, audio, or video—affects the persuasiveness of diffi cult-to-
comprehend messages. Both attitude change and retention of persuasive arguments are greater when
complex messages are presented in written form. A study that compared a traditional recruitment
website composed of words and pictures to a recruitment website featuring an interactive virtual
world fi nds that users who viewed the traditional site recalled more factual information about the
organization. The interactive recruitment website, on the other hand, actually distracted job seekers
from reading the information that would have persuaded them to apply.^179
Because complex messages are often too diffi cult for an audience to comprehend unless theyare written out, audiences are less persuaded by complex messages delivered in an audio or a video
mode than by those put into writing. The audience’s comprehension of simple messages is the
same regardless of the modality. However, due to the attention-getting attributes of video, attitude
change for simple messages is greatest when they are presented in video format and least when they
are written.^180