Research suggests human beings are more easily persuaded when they’re distracted. Zenith’s Richard Shotton explains why
We live in an information rich age. But as Herbert Simon, the Nobel Prize winning economist pointed out, that comes at a cost:
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
Simon’s point is that we have a fixed volume of attention, so if the supply of information increases then the attention each piece of information receives diminishes.
Most advertising commentary bemoans this poverty of attention. But rather than worry, we should seize the opportunities that distraction generates.
Here are two such opportunities.
Distraction helps us overcome confirmation bias
The first opportunity is based on the work of Stanford psychologists, Leon Festinger and Nathan Maccoby. They were interested in the problem of confirmation bias – the idea that once we have an opinion on a subject we interpret all new evidence to fit that belief.
Confirmation bias is a problem for brands with many rejecters as it makes changing their opinions difficult. However, the psychologists’ work suggests distraction helps overcome this bias.
They recruited a group of students who were members of college fraternities, they then played those students an audio recording of an argument about why fraternities were morally wrong. The recording was played in two difference scenarios: students either heard it on its own or they also watched a silent film at the same time.
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After the students had heard the recording, psychologists questioned them as to how far they had changed their views. Those who had heard the argument at the same time as the silent film were far more likely to have shifted their opinions.
Festinger’s hypothesis was that the brain is normally adept at generating counter-arguments that helps maintain its existing opinions. However, when the brain is distracted that ability is hampered. We’re more easily persuaded.
Brands can easily apply this learning. When trying to change the opinion of rejecters don’t seek out moments of engagement but, counter-intuitively, reach them when they’re distracted. Perhaps when they’re second screening, or as they’re streaming music while doing something else.
The web may exacerbate the problem of distraction but it also offers solutions.
Adapt creative to reflect the poverty of attention
The second approach deals with creative. If consumers are distracted then creative should be adapted to account for that: it should be shorter and punchier.
However, as yet that process of adaption has not occurred. Take TV. The length of spots hasn’t changed. According to BARB data in 2015 49% of TV ads were 30 seconds – exactly the same as 2010.
That consistency is true for the creative as well. Zenith used Nielsen data to look at the median number of words on posters and print headlines in 2010 and 2015. In 2015 the median number of words on a poster was 12 – no change from 2010. For print the average headline is now seven and a bit words long – barely down from eight, five years ago.
Creative has not yet adapted to a distracted audience. Brands have two options – either accept dwindling attention and become shorter and pithier or seek out the rare moments when consumers are engaged and open to deeper, richer content.
As these two opportunities show there may be a poverty of attention but there are a wealth of opportunities to deal with customer distraction.
Richard Shotton is head of insight at Zenith
Twitter: @rshotton
