Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is an interesting book that examines how and why we make the choices we make. It argues that we are not as reasoning and rational as we like to believe.
Some of the content is interesting for those working in marketing communications. Here's one example – from a section in the book about how to write a persuasive message.
"Suppose you must write a message that you want the recipients to believe. Of course, your message will be true, but that is not necessarily enough for people to believe that it is true…
"The general principle is that anything you can do to reduce cognitive strain (extra effort required to understand something) will help, so you should first maximise legibility. Compare these statements:
Hitler was born in 1892
Hitler was born in 1887
Both are false (Hitler was born in 1889), but studies have shown that the first is more likely to be believed. More advice: if your message is to be printed, use high-quality paper to maximise the contrast between characters and their background. If you use color, you are more likely to be believed if your text is printed in bright blue or red than in middle shades of green, yellow or pale blue.
"If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do... (research suggests that) couching familiar ideas in pretentious language is taken as a sign of poor intelligence and low credibility.
"In addition to making your message simple, try to make it memorable. Put your ideas in verse if you can; they will be more likely to be taken as truth. Participants in a much-cited survey read dozens of unfamiliar aphorisms such as:
Woes unite foes.
Little strokes will tumble great oaks.
A fault confessed is half redressed.
Other students read some of the same proverbs transformed into nonrhyming versions:
Woes unite enemies.
Little strokes will tumble great trees.
A fault admitted is half redressed.
The aphorisms were judged more insightful when they rhymed than when they did not.
"Finally, if you quote a source, choose one with a name that is easy to pronounce… if possible the recipients of your message want to stay away from anything that reminds them of effort, including a source with a complicated name.
"All this is very good advice but we should not get carried away. High quality paper, bright colours, and rhyming or simple language will not be much help if your message is obviously nonsensical, or if it contradicts facts that your audience knows to be true… How do you know that a statement is true? If it is strongly linked by logic or association to other beliefs or preferences you hold, or comes from a source you trust and like, you will feel a sense of cognitive ease. the trouble is that there may be other causes for your feeling of ease – including the quality of the font and the appealing rhythm of the prose – and you have no simple way of tracing your feelings to the source."
If you accept the argument, this would suggest that bold, simple ads, from familiar brands, executed in colour, are more likely to be believed. Especially if your message rhymes.
