The Importance Of Vivid Imagery In Persuasion
- Words can create emotional responses in your listener.
- Sexual imagery is extremely effective in persuasion.
- Emotions effect a persons actions.
Warning. This article is rated R. This means it contains sexually explicit imagery and descriptions of a sexual nature. It also involves the use of obscene language, which some readers may find offensive.
If therefore you are easily offended by such content, please do not read this article.
In previous articles you were introduced to the power of words, or more specifically, how words have the power to evoke certain emotions in people.
In these articles, we shall now focus in more detail on this emotional aspect of communication, and see why emotions/feelings cause people to act and behave in certain ways.
The Importance Of Imagery
Our brains think in pictures. The brain is therefore strongly influenced by the use of vivid imagery. Images are important because they can make us feel a certain way. In other words, images can affect our emotions.
To illustrate this point have a look at the pictures below. I have added a picture for both male and female readers.
These pictures were deliberately chosen to be of a sexually provocative nature, because sex, or sexual imagery, has an extremely powerful influence on our feelings. Sexual imagery excites us, arouses us and captivates our attention.
The “Reptilian Brain”
One of the main reasons why sexual imagery works so well is because when we become aroused, we are predominantly driven the ancient animal part of the brain. This is sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain.
The effect of this is that we use less of our thinking logical brain, and instead act from impulse. Of course, advertisers know and exploit this “sex effect” very well. This is why attractive people (preferably poorly clothed) are used to sell products, especially to men.
Here are some examples of how sexual imagery is used in advertising.
Influencing With FearÂ
Of course sexual imagery is not the only type of imagery that can influence our feelings and the decisions we make. A good example of this occurred with the release of the movie “Jaws”.
(In case you haven’t seen this movie, Jaws was about a killer shark that attacked and ate people around Californian beaches).
When Jaws was released, the number of swimmers visiting Californian beached dropped dramatically. People who saw the film became scared to swim in the ocean because they thought they would get eaten or attacked by a shark.
Whilst sharks do inhabit the Californian coast, this fear of sharks (created by the movie Jaws) was largely an irrational fear.
In fact sharks very rarely attack people, and the risk of being killed by a shark is far less than the risk of being killed in a car accident.
Because of the vivid imagery created by the movie Jaws, and the fear associated with this imagery, people were not influenced by the true facts of the situation, but instead by the vivid impression the film left in their mind.
Fear, along with sex, are two of the most powerful types of imagery you can use in persuasion. This is because people are motivated towards pleasure (i.e. sex) and away from pain (i.e. fear).
By correctly using the principles of pleasure and pain, you can get someone to do virtually anything.
Why Is Vivid Imagery So Effective?
As stated previously, the main reason why images work so well is because the brain thinks in images. Images therefore communicate messages to the brain in a language that it best understands and uses naturally.
This principle of conveying a message through images is universal in its effectiveness. For example, instructions on how to build or operate something presented in pictures can be understood by all people throughout the world. Regardless of their culture or native language.
However if these instructions were given in words, the amount of people who could understand and follow them would decrease dramatically.
Recall And Vivid ImageryÂ
Because images are easily understood by the brain, they are therefore quickly processed, easily remembered and easily recalled. This is especially true for vivid imagery.
To illustrate this point, fill in the missing letters in the words below.
F_ _ K
SHI_
S_X
Â
If you are like most people, you would have first recalled the more vivid suggestive words: Fuck, Shit and Sex. However these words could just have easily been Fork, Shin and Six.
The reason you are more likely to recall the suggestive words first, is because they create vivid and powerful emotional associations which makes them more memorable and meaningful.
A Word Of Caution
Just to make it absolutely clear, I am not suggesting that in order to persuade someone you need to speak to them using sexually explicit or obscene language.
I used these examples purely to illustrate how powerful vivid language can be in evoking an emotional response.
The Importance Of Evoking Emotions
Emotions are the single most powerful force of persuasion. Without emotion, words are dull, lifeless and fail to motivate action.
This is the importance of evoking emotion in your listener, because without it, your attempt to persuade would just be idle chat.
Emotions therefore give persuasion results, and one of the best ways to do this is through using visually descriptive imagery.
In the next few articles we shall take a closer look at ways of using descriptive language to generate vivid images in the listeners mind.
Later, we shall then take a brief look at some important emotional states, and how they can influence your attempts at persuasion.
However for now, before we move on, lets recap as to why evoking emotions in your listener are important for successful persuasion.
Advantages Of Emotions In Persuasion
Emotions Distract
Emotion arousing arguments cause us to drop our natural defenses. Emotions bypass our thinking logical brain, causing us to react impulsively.
Emotions can therefore be used to distract a person from your true intention to persuade them.
Mindless PersuasionÂ
Emotions require less mental effort than a logical response. When driven by emotions, we rarely stop to think about the pros and cons of an argument.
This causes a person to “mindlessly” respond to persuasion, making them much easier to convince or win over.
More InterestingÂ
Emotion based persuasion attempts are usually much more interesting than logic driven persuasion attempts.
To evoke emotions successfully, you must use vivid and descriptive imagery. This is usually done by describing something, or telling a story.
Logic driven persuasion attempts focus on facts and features. These are usually cold, impersonal and bland, thereby generating little or no emotional response in the listener. This makes it less interesting, and less persuasive.
Easily UnderstoodÂ
As emotional based persuasion attempts involve the use of vivid descriptive imagery, they are more easily understood, remembered and recalled.
When your message continues to linger with a person long after you are gone, future persuasion attempts are likely to occur more easily and more rapidly.
Influence BehaviorÂ
Emotions have the potential to change behavior (i.e. get a person to do what you want) more rapidly than logic.
When you buy some shoes for example, it is emotion that causes you to purchase them. All shoes serve the same basic purpose, however what differentiates them is the emotional responses they create in you.
This evoked emotion then causes action, which occurs as a purchase of the shoes.
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July 21st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
man…you’re great!!!