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this podcast is brought to you by
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knowledge of Wharton
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[Music]
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welcome to knowledge of Wharton I'm
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Angie bassini if you're a content
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creator of any sort whether you're a
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marketer an Advertiser or an influencer
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you're going to want to hear this next
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conversation about language and how to
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craft it to hold your audience's
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attention I'm with Wharton marketing
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Professor Jonah Berger and his latest
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paper is titled what holds attention
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linguistic drivers of Engagement Jonah
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thanks for coming on thanks so much for
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having me back
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let's talk about an overview first of
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This research uh you at this point in
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the paper that it really isn't enough to
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capture people's attention that you have
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to sustain it in order for them to hear
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the message that you're trying to hit
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um so talk to us about about this paper
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and what it means
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yeah so it's often said that we live in
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the attention economy and what that
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means is we only have so much attention
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we can't pay attention to seven
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different things at once we're paying
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attention to one thing that means like
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we're not paying attention to something
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else and so whether we're talking about
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the workplace whether we're talking
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about acquiring customers whether
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talking about our personal lives getting
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and holding attention is key to success
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and so the question then becomes how do
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we win in this attention economy right
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and we're constantly trying to get and
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hold others attention uh you know as a
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sales person you're trying to get
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people's attention and hold it through
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the pitch as a leader you want people to
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pay attention to your presentations and
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your emails as a colleague you want
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people to pay attention to your ideas
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post on social media we write briefs and
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emails and other types of content even
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in HR and compliance right they send out
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information wanting people to pay
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attention wanting to hold folks
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attention but it doesn't always work and
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so one question is well how can we get
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better at that how can we write content
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that's more likely to hold attention and
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how in doing so can we be more
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successful in
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while this paper talks about something
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that you call processing ease which is
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simply the amount of cognitive work that
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it takes to read something how does that
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relate to creating content that draws
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people's attention yeah so stepping back
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for a second we analyzed tens of
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thousands of pieces of content from a
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variety of different websites and news
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providers everything from newspapers to
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more blog sites everything from you know
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front page political news to sports to
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weather to personal uh sorts of things
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all types of content and we analyze how
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far down people consume that content so
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if you think about it right you open up
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an article online sometimes we read the
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whole thing sometimes we read half of it
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sometimes we read the title and we stop
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reading it and go on to doing something
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else we all know the title is important
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for getting attention right if we think
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on social for example the image and the
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headline is going to be what gets people
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to click into something you know think
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about SEO and the right search words to
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get people to to open something to pay
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attention to it initially but if we want
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that content to impact people if we want
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them to understand what we're
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communicating if we want them to get our
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new strategy if we want them to buy the
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product or service it's hard to do that
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if they don't stay tuned for the rest of
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the pitch and so what we're interested
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is what keeps people reading not just
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what leads them to open something but
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what what keeps them reading and so
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analyzing these tens of thousands of
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pieces of content controlling for what
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type of topic it focused on or how that
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headline was written we're just in ways
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of writing that that holds people's
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attention and as you mentioned we found
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two key buckets that had a big impact
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the first was something called
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processing ease and the second relates
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to emotion and so the simplest way to
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think about processing is essentially
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how easy is it to consume this content
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now and most of us probably don't think
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about this very often but sometimes
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we're Reading Writing and it just it
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feels like it flows it goes together
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really well it's really easy to read
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it's sort of an effortless process other
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times we find ourselves reading
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something and sort of it just feels
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difficult even if we're interested in
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the topic we can't see seem to slog
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through it just because it feels like a
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lot of work what we don't realize is
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that's in the writing that's not just a
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subjective feeling the writing is
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creating that subjective feeling so
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things for example like how familiar the
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words are more familiar words make
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content easier to process take something
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really simple like the word car versus
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automobile like both of those are words
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that we know they're not completely
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unfamiliar right but the word car is
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something we hear a lot more often than
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the word automobile it's just in more
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familiar word and that familiarity makes
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it easier to to process similarly
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concreteness linguistic concreteness
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also makes things easier to read imagine
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I said something is happening soon
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versus something is happening tomorrow
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tomorrow's a much more concrete specific
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word I know exactly when that thing is
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going to happen concreteness often
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relates to whether we can form a mental
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image of something and so there are ways
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of writing to make things more concrete
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and so these are just a couple of the
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features we identified that shape
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processing ease but but the key Insight
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here is subtle shifts in writing can
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make it easier to move through the
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content which makes people more likely
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to continue moving through and read what
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we like community
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I 100 agree especially in my former life
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as a news journalist in fact you the
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words that we're talking about made me
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think of the things I learned as a
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journalist which is never use the word
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utilized use the word uses you know
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things like that car versus automobile
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um it's it's most definitely key because
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you don't want people to get lost in the
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words you want them to hear the message
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read the message correct yeah and even
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some people step up with syntax right so
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this is something we never think about
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and so I don't want to get too far on
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the weeds here but we looked at sort of
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aspects of the syntax that make it
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easier to keep consuming the content
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right I don't know if you've ever
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experienced this but sometimes you read
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something and the sentence structure
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there's one type of structure in one
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sentence and a different type of
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structure the next ends that makes it
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more difficult to move through the
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content and so everything from the words
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we use the structure we use all of these
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things can shape how easy it is to
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consume the content and so How likely
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people are to keep reading I used to
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have an editor that would go come on it
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ain't Shakespeare so there you go let's
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talk about something else that you bring
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up in your paper which is emotional
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language and I was actually kind of
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surprised to find that you say that when
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you use language that makes people feel
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uneasy or uncertain that actually
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engages their attention a little bit
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more so can you explain that for you
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sure yeah so you might think it's it's
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good for people to feel certain right
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and what does that mean well certain
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means you kind of know what's going
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going to happen right um I think about a
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score of a baseball game right when when
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you get the score you have a sense of
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certainty you now know who's going to
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win um if it's the score at the end of
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the game and and certainty is great in
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some ways right um in other projects for
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example we've shown benefits of
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certainty in a variety of different ways
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certainty can often be persuasive right
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the more certain we are in our language
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the more it seems like we know what
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we're talking about and so it can
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persuade others but but here's the
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challenge certainty doesn't hold
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attention right imagine you're watching
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a basketball game right would you be
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more likely to keep watching if the
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outcome of the game you already knew or
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if you didn't already know the outcome
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of the game and I think that's a pretty
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easy answer right you'd sit there going
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well hold on if I if I don't know the
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outcome of the game I want to keep
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watching to find out who wins and if I
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do know the outcome of the game I might
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keep watching but eventually I know who
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wins I don't need to stay tuned to find
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out and that's exactly the same with
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with language more generally right right
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when we use a lot of certainty in our
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language people feel like the puzzle is
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solved they don't need to keep reading
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they don't need to keep paying attention
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whereas they use a little bit more
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uncertainty people are like wow I don't
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actually know how this is going to
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resolve right it's a little bit more
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like a mystery opening up an idea of a
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curiosity Gap and so people are more
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likely to keep consuming the content to
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figure out what what happens and so
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again it depends on what our goals are
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right if we just want to get across a
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high level idea or maybe we put in the
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title of the first paragraph and that's
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it but if we want people to keep
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consuming a number of ideas to get to
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the big punch line we can't give away
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that big punch line right away and so
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emotional language does that not just
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certainty in general but certain
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emotions are more certain than than
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others if you think about anger versus
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anxiety for example both are negative
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neither feels good right both feeling
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angry and feeling anxious or negative
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feelings but when we feel angry we
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usually know what we're angry about
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we're angry about a very specific thing
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the airline canceled my flight I'm
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pissed off at them when we're anxious
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it's a little bit more of a diffuse
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State we're not always certain why we're
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anxious we have a feeling of anxiety but
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we feel uncertain in part because we
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don't know if something's going to
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happen we're anxious whether our right
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is going to be canceled and so that
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uncertainty leads to paying attention to
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everything that's going on what what
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announcement did the airline make what
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is this flight attendant doing we're
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more likely to pay attention or resolve
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that uncertainty same on the positive
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side hope versus excitement right um
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usually if you're excited about
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something you know what's going to
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happen if you're hopeful you want it to
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happen but you're not sure and so subtle
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differences in how we write content can
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be more likely to make people feel a
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little bit more uncertain and lead them
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to be more like pay attention
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that makes perfect sense let's talk
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about one more aspect of emotional
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language that you mentioned in the paper
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and that is arousal Mr Burger what do
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you mean by that yeah so around one
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basically how fired up we are so I think
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a good way to to think about this is you
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know imagine you're for going for a walk
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in the woods and you see a snake a big
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snake sort of sliding right across your
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path whoa you know your body post
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quickens your heart beats faster you are
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ready to take an action that's the idea
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of physiological arousal right we're
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fired up we're ready to take an action
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we're ready to to run we're ready to
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take an action to do something and so
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some emotions like anger anxiety or also
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excitement or humor High arousal whether
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other emotions things like contentment
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or sadness or low arousal and we find
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that more emotions Associated arousal
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keep people consuming content similar to
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the ideal uncertainty right they're a
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little more Vigilant they're paying
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attention to figure out what what's
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going on
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um and they're more likely to take
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action continuing to consume the content
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these are just really really great tips
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if you think about crafting your message
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writing um pres any type of presentation
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to keep your audience engaged there's
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there's a number of number of
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contributions that this paper makes so
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one of them that you mentioned very
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briefly I really would love to talk to
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you about which is the the critical role
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that language plays in the issues that
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we're facing now in society which is
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disinformation uh hate speech other
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types of social issues can you touch on
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that a little bit
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yeah you know I I think sometimes we see
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things that are shared online
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um we see content that's engaging and we
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think it's sort of random luck or chance
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right uh oh you know I wish people
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wouldn't share misinformation or hate
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speech or things along those lines but
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but the way that content is designed
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it's not just about people right it's
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about the way the content itself is
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designed certain content is written in a
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way that's more engaging certain content
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is written in a way that's more likely
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to be shared certain content is written
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in a way that makes us believe it even
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when it's not true and so there's really
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a behavioral science behind these things
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and the more we understand about why
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people share what makes content more
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likely to hold attention uh the more
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like we understand these factors the
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more we can design content and systems
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to to decrease the chance that these
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things occur
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great point last big question what is
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the takeaway what is the thing that
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marketers advertisers Tick Tock
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influencers need to know from this paper
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you know I think there's a really simple
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but very important takeaway here which
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is most of us as communicators think
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that the effectiveness of our
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communication is all about the topic the
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focus the main theme or idea right you
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might be sitting there going what holds
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attention you know celebrity gossip
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um and sports scores hold attention but
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environmental news and um you know tax
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policy and climate change these are just
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topics that no one's going to pay
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attention to and so if I'm writing about
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one of these things I'm kind of out of
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luck there's nothing I can do
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um but the idea here is that good
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writing right is not about the topic
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it's not that that engaging content is
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all about the topic style how we write
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can compensate for it in our research
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for example we show even controlling for
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the topic of the Articles how they're
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written right shapes whether or not they
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hold attention so sure certain things do
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naturally uh more likely to hold
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attention Sports technology person all
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sorts of things are generally more
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likely to hold attention than world news
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that said if they're written the right
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way you can make anything more likely to
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hold attention and the impact of of
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writing style and how you write is just
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as big if not bigger than than the topic
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and so writing in the right way can
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increase sustained attention even for
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Less engaging time
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you gotta put some cheese on the
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broccoli to get it down
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completely agree Jonah thanks for being
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here I really appreciate it and before I
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let you go I do want to mention uh
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because you are the master of words uh
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if you uh wouldn't mind telling us a
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little bit about your latest book magic
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words oh yeah sure so um uh you know I
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don't have to tell you as we've talked
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about today that that language is a part
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of almost everything we do right it's
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how leaders make presentations it's how
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colleagues send emails it's how sales
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people pitch ideas
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um it's how marketers craft ads and
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content that we talk to our spouses and
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our children but while we spend a lot of
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time to think about the ideas we want to
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communicate we spend a lot less time
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thinking about the words we can use and
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just like we talked about today those
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words have a big impact and so um in
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magic word they talk about different
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ways we can use language to increase our
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impact whether it's holding attention
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persuading others deepening social
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connection or being more effective sales
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great it's called magic words what to
00:13:21
say to get your way love that title you
00:13:23
can download it anywhere books are sold
00:13:24
thank you for joining me if you enjoyed
00:13:27
this conversation you can find more just
00:13:28
like it on our website where you can
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also find all our articles on the latest
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research in business for knowledge award
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and I'm Angie bassini thanks for joining
00:13:35
us for more insight from knowledge of
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Wharton please visit
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knowledge.worton.upen.edu
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