From ego-bias to negative dispositions: How neuroscience can differentiate comms strategies

Last month, we had the pleasure of attending a 'lunch and learn’-style talk hosted by PRCA where we absorbed insights from chartered consumer psychologist Dr Simon Moore on some of the tendencies of human brains, and how understanding these can enable brands to differentiate their communications strategy. Read on for some of our key takeaways. 

As social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube evolve to short-form content, streaming of TV and video soars, and e-commerce delivery times become even shorter, people are becoming increasingly impatient and our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

In fact, research by psychologists and computer scientists have found that over the past 20 years, the amount of time humans can focus on one thing has dropped from around 2 and a half minutes to 45 seconds.

As we reach for our mobile phones and laptops increasingly and physical mediums such as newspapers and magazines experience declines in sales, the way we reach our target audiences through our communications is also needing to evolve.

So, what does neuroscience have to do with our communications strategies? In more ways than you may think. From ego-bias to a tendency to lean towards the negatives, our brains are both fickle and fantastic, and understanding our various nuances could enable us to reach our desired audiences and tailor our content to specific archetypes, boosting the success of our comms campaigns. 

Multitasking is a myth

Us, humble humans, can spin around five to nine (hypothetical) plates at any given time. However, contrary to popular belief, there is in fact no such thing as multitasking. 

Watching the TV whilst scrolling through your phone sound familiar? How about pausing a task to quickly search something on Google before returning to the task? Same. Whilst this might seem harmless and in fact more productive, this is actually known as nano-switching, or rapidly switching between tasks. 

According to research, making these rapid switches takes a toll on your own mental energy with multitasking and burnout described as going ‘hand in hand’. It’s also what your audience is likely doing whilst digesting your content, so it’s more important than ever to make it clear, concise, and easy to skim through. 

Whether it’s an email newsletter, a blog, or a social media post, the fast-paced nature of life means your audience will likely be accessing your content on the go, whilst doing ten other things, and switching back and forth between it and other content. 

This is particularly relevant if targeting content towards Gen Z (those born after 1997) with this demographic coined the first generation of ‘digital natives’ who have grown up being surrounded by advertisements, sponsorships, and never ending notifications. 

The answer? Snackable content. As coined by VWO, ‘snackable’ content is optimised for mobile devices, is image-rich, quick to digest, and easy to share. Utilising this form of content will ensure your messaging is reaching busy on-the-go audiences with little time and even shorter attention spans.

People perceive the world differently

The world is driven by our perception of what is happening. Simply put, perception is not reality. This means that in many cases, what we think is superb copy that will change the world and cut straight through to the heart of our audience, may not be perceived the same way by everyone. 

This is simply because our perception of the world is influenced by our own personal life experiences and biases meaning messages will have different meanings for different people. This is known as perceptual bias, and this can affect how audiences interpret and react to a brand and its messaging. 

According to Zorgle, consistency and a focus on community management is the key here. This is because if a brand is able to craft a strong brand identity that is consistent and trustworthy, whilst also listening to and responding to any feedback on content, trust will grow despite differing perceptions.

We are emotional beings 

The emotional portion of our brains is four times bigger than the statistical portion. In communications, this means that whilst statistics and figures are great, you won’t convince anyone to do anything if you don’t evoke emotion. 

According to research by the University of Southern California, out of advertising campaigns that perform well, 31% have emotional content compared to just 16% that have rational content. This highlights the fact that emotional response to an advert has far greater influence on a consumer’s intent to buy a product than the advert’s content does. 

The research also highlighted two types of emotive response: based on empathy and based on creativity. The former is when people empathise with and feel closer to a brand based on their content, and the latter is when an advert or content makes people feel that a brand is ‘imaginative and ahead of the game’. This can be seen with brands that are playful and creative within their comms and use humour across platforms such as social media which audiences feel an affinity for or positive responses to. 

A good example of the use of humour within social media is Innocent Drinks. The well-known smoothie brand often posts relatable, humorous, and playful content across its social media, which in turn not only generates a large level of engagement but is extremely sharable and creates a positive feeling from consumers towards the brand. 

On utilising emotion within communications, the USC recommends creating content that sparks joy or surprise as well as creating content that creates an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ that keeps viewers engaged as they experience emotional ups and downs.

Brains tend to lean towards the negatives

I hate to end on a downer, but brains have a negative disposition. This is somewhat of a hangover from our survival days when the threat of being eaten by a sabre tooth tiger was very much a reality but in today’s world it translates as our tendency to register negative information more readily and dwell on this information for longer. 

There’s a reason negativity drives online news consumption. Research by Nature found that negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates. In fact, for a headline of average length, each additional negative word increased the click-through-rate by 2.3%. Negative online news articles are also shared more to social media with social media users 1.91 times more likely to share links to negative news articles.  

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Communications can be tailored to proactively address audiences’ concerns and this in turn provides an opportunity for brands to showcase that they offer solutions that lower anxieties, building stronger brand affinity. By consistently addressing concerns through your communications, your audience will become more susceptible to positives. 

Interestingly, another tactic for increasing positivity in communications could even be the use of the trusty emoji. Whilst the use of emojis in B2B communications can divide opinions, research has found that people react to emojis in the same way they do faces. So, utilising a few emojis within an email newsletter or throughout social media posts could in fact boost positivity and dispel our negative dispositions. 

So, the bottom line is that brains are fickle and there is no single rule that applies to all and there is, unfortunately, no magic formula that can be applied to reach every single desired audience demographic. As such, there can be a number of dimensions to cut through when navigating successful comms and in turn there are a range of tactics and methods that can be applied. 

Rather than feeling overwhelmed or not knowing where to start, we think that’s where the opportunity to flex the creativity of the human brain comes in! 

Thanks to PRCA, Kelly Pepworth, Ceri Rowland, and Simon Moore for a fantastic and thought provoking session.