More Reasons to Keep It Simple

Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.

Successful persuasion requires your audience to perform some mental work: to understand what you’re saying, evaluate its merits, and decide if they agree. The more effort you ask from your audience, the less likely they are to meet you halfway.

[The researchers] took a number of rhyming sayings previously unknown to the participants and created parallel but non-rhyming versions of them. For example, they took the relatively obscure saying ‘Caution and measure will win you treasure’ and modified it to say, ‘Caution and measure will win you riches.’…

Participants then read some of these sayings and rated each one for the extent to which it reflected the way the world really works. The researchers found that even though all the participants strongly held the belief that rhyming was in no way an indicator of accuracy, they nonetheless perceived the statements that rhymed as more accurate than those that didn’t.

The researchers explained that rhyming phrases are characterised by greater processing fluency, meaning that they’re mentally processed more easily than non-rhyming phrases. Because people tend to base accuracy evaluations, at least partly, on the perceived fluency of the incoming information, the rhyming statements are judged as more accurate.

The authors offer more examples:

• One group of business students was shown an ad that said “BMW or Mercedes? There are many reasons to choose a BMW. Can you name ten?” Another group was shown an ad asking them to name just one reason. “The results were clear,” write the authors, “the advertising copy that asked readers to name ten reasons to choose a BMW led to lower evaluations of the BMW and higher evaluations of the Mercedes than the copy that asked readers to name just one.”
• People have been shown to feel more positively towards companies whose names they can pronounce easily.
• Handwritten messages have been shown to be more persuasive when the handwriting is clear. Similarly, printed messages are more persuasive when the font is easily read.
• Complex, multisyllable words have been shown to be less persuasive than short, simple ones at conveying the same information.

The lesson is plain. While elegant prose and clean, attractive design do not by themselves guarantee you a persuasive argument, they do remove barriers to persuasion. And that can make all the difference.