Numbers Don’t Move People

Many of our client engagements include research to find out what moves people to action. We work with polling firms to ask questions that help us build messaging that mobilizes. Most polls get more expensive with more questions, so having a good sense of what questions to start with – and how to word them to get the most actionable information – is critical.

Some of the research that drives our thinking on how to do that was reported early last year by Shankar Vedantam in the Washington Post Magazine:

[Psychologist Paul Slovic] once told volunteers about a 7-year-old girl in Mali who was starving and in need of help. They were given a certain amount of money and asked how much they were willing to spend to help her. On average, people gave half their money to help the girl. Slovic asked another group of volunteers the same question, except instead of the girl, volunteers were told about the problem of famine in Africa, and that there were millions of people in dire need of help. The volunteers gave half as much money as the volunteers in the first group.

Slovic took the experiment that showcased the little girl in Africa a step further. He told another group of volunteers about a little boy in Mali. One group of volunteers was asked whether they would give money to the little girl; another was asked whether they would donate money to the little boy. A third group of volunteers was told about both the boy and the girl and asked how much they were willing to give. People gave the same amount of money when told about either the boy or the girl. But when the children were presented together, the volunteers gave less.

What does this have to do with polling and message development? We draw three important principles from the work:

1. Put a face not a number on your issue.

Research has repeatedly confirmed the hypothesis that people respond to another person much better than they do a number, even a really big number (perhaps especially a really big number). Identify the person who best represents the core of your issue – a student who’s education will be cut short if Pell Grant funding is slashed, a parent who has to choose between caring for a sick child and keeping her job – and put that one person out front. Resist the urge to demonstrate scale and demonstrate real, personal impact instead.

Note that this rule applies to bad guys, too. Don’t talk about the dirty dozen polluters in your area, and for the love of progress don’t talk about the millions of pounds of particulate they spew into the air.. Pick the CEO of one of them and present him and his company’s malfeasance, and pick a single child who’s asthma is worse as a result.

Use some of your research dollars to identify the right face or faces to put on your issue. Who moves your people?

2. Tell stories.

The strength of putting a face on your issue is that it allows you to tell a story. There aren’t compelling stories about numbers, but that one student who’s working two jobs and studying in the wee hours every morning to be the first person in her family to finish college is a compelling story. Stories give your activists, donors, and even decision-makers a way to relate to your issue. They can relate to your story (if you pick the right one for your audience) and understand why what you’re asking is important.

Again, resist the urge to demonstrate scale by telling a lot of stories. Instead, demonstrate relevance and connect to your audience by telling just a very few very compelling stories.

Again, use some of your research dollars to identify the best, most compelling stories. Remember that you’re not your audience, and be prepared to be surprised by what moves people.

3. Clearly connect your “ask” to the story you’re telling and the face you’re presenting

If you’re asking your activists to go to Senator XYZ’s recess town hall meeting and stand up to ask a question, ask them to bring your story to the Senator. Remind your activists that they can help this one person by taking this one important action. Presumably you’re asking because it’s important, because the action can help make a difference, because it matters. If you’ve chosen the right person, told the right stories, and connected the ask to resolution on those stories, you’ll be more likely to generate the calls, visits, dollars or whatever it is you need to move the ball.