2024-03-12 08:37:04
Scientific experiments determine what modes of presentation make explanations more powerful
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In order for people to believe you, you need to be persuasive. It’s a tricky art, but the essential element in it is to give them a good enough reason to believe you.
It is usually believed that this is done by presenting your arguments accurately, clearly, comprehensibly for the interlocutors concerned, and relatively concise. According to some theories, those who do not understand the matter well, or who are trying to lie and cheat, talk for a long time.
However, experiments have proven that moderately long explanations work better than short ones. At the same time, they may also include information that has no direct connection with the topic, but sounds authoritative – for example, from a scientific study. Psychologists call the “lure effect” information that can do without, but which creates more credibility.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania conducted an experiment to test this effect. They used complex matter – scientific concepts that had to be understood and accepted as true by non-specialists. They tested theories from the social sciences, biology, chemistry, physics, etc. In some of the explanations, unnecessary details were shortened. In others, they were given, although they did not help to understand the concept they were presenting and to find it convincing.
For each of the concepts, the researchers tried four different ways of presentation: a good explanation; good explanation plus additional information that could in principle be reduced; bad explanation; poor explanation with additional information that could have been omitted.
Comparing the data from each experiment shows that the second option clearly wins – people find good explanations that contain a certain amount of useless additional information more convincing.
The other conclusion of the study is that always good explanations are more effective than bad ones – even when there is additional information for the bad ones, but not for the good ones.
In practice, this means that you will be successful in your work if you speak in a way that people understand you. But when you’re trying to convince your boss, colleagues, and partners of something, add some information, even if it seems like you could do without it. Naturally, it must be completely true and somehow related to what you are talking about. And most importantly, make your explanation more impactful.
According to another study sticking an authority label helps too. For example, the definition “moral” turns out to be very influential.
The perception that something has a moral basis makes it persuasive. The reason is that for most people morality implies universality and absolute truth.
And the reverse trick of giving impact and universality to your explanations can be very effective in increasing your persuasiveness – tell a joke Of course, neither in leggings nor in a sleeve, but related to the topic and helping your interlocutors to better understand the information you are giving them.
A Stanford University study shows that when you refer to statistics to make yourself more persuasive, they are remembered only 5-10% of the time. However, when you combine them with anecdotes, the percentage jumps to 65-70%. You can tell, for example, a joke about statistics: On average, Bulgarians eat pork with cabbage. This means that some eat pork and some eat cabbage.
Moreover, an appropriate anecdote inserted into the explanations will also make you a more memorable speaker if you are in front of an audience listening to a series of speakers.
Anyway, to be convincing, you must explain in the language of your listeners. This means not using specific terms and jargon that are unfamiliar to your interlocutors. They won’t make you more authoritative and people won’t believe you, they’ll feel like idiots who don’t understand you.
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