Do you think you have the best imagination? This article will put it to the test. Keep reading.
This article is inspired by The Illusion of Choice. A book written by Richard Shotton about cognitive biases in marketing and everyday life: read another article from this series.
Imagine you're getting a coffee. It's taking a while so you're browsing leaflets on the counter. They are from various charities. Non-profit organisations are asking you to help them fight the famine. You immediately feel guilty about ordering the venti pumpkin laté, extra spice, extra cream, extra sprinkles.
You decide to save your soul and donate to one of the charities. There are two main options. The first leaflet shows a graph with a rising number of starving people in India. „2 million people are threatened by starvation in India“ says the slogan.
The second leaflet introduces a little boy called Mali. He is 5 and eats once every other day. Which charity did you pick?
A. None. After having the Starbucks coffee you now can't afford to pay rent
B. The one with statistics
C. The one with a little boy called Mali
Already know your answer? You'll find the correct one at the end of the article.
Takeaway from Oddysey
Let’s start with a little test today. Please read the following list of terms:
square door
impossible amount
rusty engine
better excuse
flaming forest
apparent fact
muscular gentleman
common fate
white horse
subtle fault
Now please hide the list. Grab a pencil and a notebook. Try to write as many of the wordy words you can recall. No rush.
Are you done? Let me be an oracle for a moment. I think that you probably listed terms like.. hm… need to summon my powers. Oh, I got it!
square door, muscular gentleman, white horse, rusty engine…
Am I right? That means you’re like the participants of Ian Begg’s research from 1972. (Yes, I’m disappointed too. Turns out I don’t have powers. I just like to read a lot.)
He asked 25 students to do the same thing I just asked you. Only the list of terms was longer.
The results proved that students were much more able to recall concrete terms like “square door“ over abstract ones. “Common fate“, for example.
Let’s put these findings in numbers. People recalled 39% of the concrete terms and only 9% of abstract ones on average.
According to Beggs, it’s because we can visualise the concrete terms, so it’s easier to remember.
To be honest, we are the absolute winners for thinking abstractly at all. This ability is what makes us human and differentiates us from other species. We don’t even have this ability from the get-go.
It’s fully developed only after we hit puberty. So we can use it to fantasize about dating Heath Ledger or Johnny Depp (Yes, those are my picks. I’m an old fart.)
To put it in other words, thinking abstractly is a flex in itself. We are running some energy-demanding program in our brain when we are trying to grasp abstract concepts like love, betrayal, and Johnny Depp’s captivating smell. No wonder other programs like memory running in the background are not performing 100% at that moment.
The last point supporting these findings will be in the form of a history lesson. Michael Havelock from Yale examined old stories like the Odyssey and the Iliad. He discovered that they contain plenty of concrete words and only a few abstracts. Do you know why? I give you two options:
Homer was a 10-year-old
Those stories were passed down by word of mouth
Drumroll, please. B is correct! People had to remember the story to pass it to the next one. Only at the end of the chain was Homer writing it down.
With every new version a few abstract words disappeared. This proves concrete words were easier to remember back then as they are now.
However, to be completely sure, we would have to examine other works from that period. Abstract thinking is still evolving. The more we use it, the bigger of a muscle it is. So it is completely possible that back then people were not working with abstraction in the same way, on the same level or as frequently as we are. Period.
Marketers, this one is for you
Who would benefit from people remembering stuff more than marketers? Richard Shotton thought of you guys. In 2021 he and Mike Treharne from Leo Burnett prepared a research to prove that Begg’s findings work in advertising.
They got together a convincing sample of 425 people and showed them a list of 10 phrases commonly used in advertising. Care for examples?
Concrete | Abstract |
Fast car | Innovative quality |
Skinny jeans | Trusted provenance |
Cashew nut | Central purpose |
Money in your pocket | Wholesome nutrition |
Happy hens | Ethical vision |
The process was the same. People read the list and wrote down what they remembered. But with one little tweak. This time, Shotton waited 5 minutes before he asked people to recall all they could. Because in advertising, we are interested in long-term memory, right, folks?
The results were still satisfying. Participants remembered 6,7% of the concrete words compared to pitiable 0,7% of the abstract ones.
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How to use concreteness to your benefit
Use concrete examples instead of abstract ratings
Don't say the task was effortless. Say: “I got the job done in an hour instead of five.“
Don't say the app offers a seamless experience. Say: “Everything you'll touch says ‘hello.‘“
Remember how Apple promoted the early iPods? They said you have „1000 songs in your pockets“ instead of stating how many megabytes that thing has.
Source: medium
Help people to imagine using the product
In 2011 Ryan Elder from Brigham Young University and Aradhna Krishna University of Michigan showed 321 people a teasing chocolate cake image. A part of the contestants saw a picture with a fork ready on the left side and the other group had a fork on the right side of the plate.
The researchers asked people two questions:
whether they are left-handed or right-handed.
whether they want to buy the cake
The results were amazing. When the fork was on “the correct side“ (right-handed people saw it on the right side) the intent to buy was 35% higher than when the fork was situated incorrectly (on the left side for right-handed person).
So no matter what you do, always try to imagine things from your customer's perspective. Make them feel at home.
But don't forget. This tip makes everything more real for the customer. We are enhancing all experiences - good and bad. If you offer them a delicious cake, they will drool. But if you show them a moulding sandwich, they will bite (you).
Stories are concrete. Statistic are abstract
In 2007 Deborah Small, George Loewenstein and Paul Slovic paid 121 people $5 to read an article about food shortage in Africa.
Some got the passage with statistics. For example, “2 million people in Zambia are affected by a food shortage every day.“
The second group read about an individual. For example, “Rachel, a six-year-old from Mali is on the verge of starvation.“
After the read people could donate something from their earned $5 to the charity, Save the Children.
And here's the plot twist. People reading the statistics donated $1,17 on average compared to $2,83 given on average by the group reading about little Rachel.
People are not able to imagine 2 million starving citizens. It's too abstract to comprehend. But we are more than able to grasp the horror of one suffering girl.
If you want to embark emotions, give people something they can actually imagine.
so it turns out that Papa Stalin was right: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic“. This gem was brought to you by a fuzzy-loving cookie monster and author of another banger: “The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” (Not surprising that people in post-soviet countries are still traumatised.)
Keep it real
Keep it real. Keep it concrete. We can use this advice in our personal life as well. Do you want to share a story about a work colleague bugging you with your friends? Using concrete words will help them imagine your pain and you'll get more of the sweet sympathy points.
It works the other way around as well. Your boss is too noisy and asking how your weekend went? Get rid of him politely using the most amount of abstract words you can.
Just say everything was fabulous, perfect, effortless and banging. Or something.
Correct answer: C. The one with a little boy called Mali
Source: The Illusion of Choice, Richard Shotton
Read more: Rhyme for your life
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