When you need to engage and persuade people on an issue or topic that matters deeply to them, it’s natural to leverage logic and reason as a way of ensuring your message is heard. However, there are limitations to a wholly rational approach. As members of a team responsible for leading the safe, rapid, and effective rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in Jersey — a self-governing dependency of the United Kingdom — we experienced first-hand the success of an alternative method.
We’re not saying providing clear and easy-to-understand information isn’t important; in fact, it’s crucial. But it tends to be most useful when communicating to a mainstay who is already bought in and therefore relatively easy to persuade. For disparate, sceptical groups who are trying to make a decision about something that affects them deeply, where enormous amounts of information (and misinformation) are circulating, and where doubts abound, research shows how logic and reason can even backfire as persuasive techniques, resulting in people becoming more entrenched in their views and beliefs. We knew going into the vaccine project that we needed to adopt a different strategy: one founded on making a personal case.
We did this by augmenting our multi-disciplinary group of clinicians and public health experts with a team of behavioral scientists who used their knowledge of how to influence human behavior to tackle the Covid-19 vaccine problem. They helped us develop personal appeals that contributed to the feat of Jersey achieving one of the highest vaccine uptake rates in the developed world.
These are three practical, personal tactics we implemented that contributed to the success of our vaccines program that we believe will be useful for any business or organization that needs to engage and persuade a broad range of disparate audiences.
Choose the Right Messenger
We’ve all experienced the frustration of having our ideas and proposals fall on deaf ears. That frustration can quickly turn to annoyance when someone else says what we said, and suddenly everyone thinks it’s the best idea ever. This common scenario illustrates perfectly the idea that people often decide who to listen to (or ignore) not on the basis of what is said, but rather who is saying it.
There’s a reasonable explanation for this: People have to contend with an enormous amount of information every day, much of it conflicting. Our brains have become remarkably adept at taking shortcuts — including making all kinds of connections and inferences about who we should listen to, and who we can comfortably snub. These judgements frequently happen in a matter of milliseconds and are triggered not on the basis of the truth or wisdom of the message, but rather on the basis of a single trait the messenger is perceived to possess that signals they are worth listening to.
For example, people tend to comply with appeals to hold escalator handrails more when the announcement is made by a child. Why? Because a child’s voice signals vulnerability that will often activate a “be careful” mindset. Campaigns to reduce AIDS in Africa that encourage women to insist on condom use have found that hairdressers are more likely to be listened to than doctors because women perceive hairdressers as “someone like me.” In both cases it is a feature of the messenger that carries sway — be it a vulnerability or similarity — rather than the message itself.
Research shows there are eight messenger traits that influence who people are likely to listen to: Socio-economic position, competence, dominance, attractiveness, warmth, vulnerability, trustworthiness, and charisma. Armed with this knowledge, and noting how these messenger traits differ across contexts and situations, the Government of Jersey designed a Covid-19 vaccine campaign that featured a single, consistent message delivered via these different messengers. Each messenger represented an age-appropriate, relevant, and trusted person known to each target group. For example, we found care home staff who had initially been cautious but had changed their mind and got vaccinated were more effective messengers than a knowledgeable expert or famous person they knew. The use of personalized messengers was especially helpful in our efforts to fully vaccinate care home staff, achieving 93 percent vaccine coverage compared to around 80 percent in other jurisdictions.
There is a clear lesson, not just for vaccine programs, but for any initiative where engagement is crucial. Be sure to personalize appeals by including a range of messengers that your audience will likely identify with. Just because someone in your organization is the most knowledgeable about a topic (like a doctor about Covid) that doesn’t necessarily make them the most persuasive about that same topic. The same is true on a smaller scale: If your team is making a pitch to investors, or arguing for a strategic direction to stakeholders, don’t just think about what to say. Carefully consider who should say it, too.
Say “Because”
The esteemed Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer demonstrated the persuasive power of the word “because” in her famous studies in the 1970s. People waiting in line to use a photocopier were asked “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the copier?” 60 percent agreed. But when the request was accompanied with a reason — “May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”—94 percent complied.
Interestingly, even when the word because was followed with a completely meaningless reason — such as “May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?” just as many people said yes. The study wonderfully demonstrates the motivational influence of the word “because” and its continually reinforced association with the good rationales that typically follow it.
Fifty years later, this approach remains effective. Most messages these days are delivered personally to screens that we mindlessly scroll through, so we only pay attention to a fraction of what we see. Using the word “because” can trigger people to recognize that there’s an explanation to follow.
But just because people pay more attention to the word “because” doesn’t mean that what comes after is less important. Hence our two-step “because-then-reason” strategy. First, we prominently included the word “because” in our vaccination outreach campaigns. Then we followed the word “because” with a personalized reason meaningful to that particular messenger (and their audience).
Images used with permission from the Government of Jersey
The implications are clear for anyone looking to persuade in forums where there’s a lot of noise, such as social media: Use the word “because” in your messaging, and follow it up with a reason that will personally resonate.
Build a sense of ownership
A 2020 mega-study conducted by several dozen researchers led by Wharton School professor Katy Milkman demonstrated how a simple change to a text message increased uptake of flu shots. Reminder messages that included the words “your vaccine is reserved for you” boosted rates by as much as 11 percent compared to standard messages such as “protect yourself by getting a flu shot.”
These messages worked because of something behavioral scientists call the “endowment effect.” People who feel a sense of ownership, whether over an idea or an item, typically value it more highly.
Milkman’s study provided the inspiration for us to adopt a similar approach in the emails and texts we sent on behalf of the Government of Jersey to citizens whose turn it was to receive their Covid-19 vaccine. The words “your vaccine” were designed to give readers that sense of personal ownership.
This extends to business setting as well. When communicating a new initiative or program, rather than highlighting the general benefits to lots of people, trigger endowment by framing the program as an investment that has personalized benefits to those you’re trying to persuade instead.
More broadly and beyond Covid vaccine programs, these three approaches are also likely to be effective and easily implemented by any business or organization that needs to efficiently and successfully engage audiences.
Just remember their power comes, not necessarily from logic and reason, but by getting personal.
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