Articles Social Influence
Article 1: Fluency and Social Influence Lessons from Judgement and Decision-making
Describing the undesirable behaviour as common, such messages can actually increase its frequency
rather than reduce it. To decrease the frequency of undesirable actions, other public serve messages ask
recipients to image potential negative outcomes negative outcomes are often abstract, such messages
can make these outcomes seem less likely to occur in contrast to what the message is intended. It appear
that not only is the content of thought generated prior to judgment or performance important, but the
ease or difficulty of generating those thoughts and images also may be a critical determinant of later
judgments and behaviour (profound influence n judgments & behaviour).
Fluency and social consensus: it sounds familiar, it must be popular
One of the most basic forces that influence our behaviour are the actions and opinions of others. We are
poor at tracking how often we’ve heard or seen something; instead we rely on whether it seems familiar
if it does, we’ve probably heard or seen it before. Incorporating a fluency perspective reveals a
powerful insight: To infer a norm, people draw on the experience of familiarity, but are insensitive to
where this fluency experience comes from. Hence, their perceptions may often be faulty and driven by
fluency variables that are unrelated to the actual frequency of the relevant opinion or behaviour.
Fluency and truth: it sounds familiar, it’s probably true
Variables that facilitate fluent processing (repetition, contrasting background, rhyme) create the
impression that the statement is true. This fluency-familiarity-truth link suggests that frequent repetition
and design qualities can increase the influence of a message beyond its effect on attention and retention.
At the same time, the fluency-familiarity-truth phenomenon present a problem when we attempt to
counter misleading information. Various types of messages try to correct for misleading information by
first repeating the false information and then refuting it with counter arguments. Although people may
rely on correct information not prominent in audience’s mind: once memory for substantive details
fades and people encounter the misleading statement again, they may increasingly be influenced by the
familiarity of the misleading information.
Fluency and risk: it’s hard to pronounce, it must be dangerous
Familiar options feel safer than unfamiliar ones. Hard-to-pronounce food seem as more harmful than food
with easy-to-pronounce names. The food additives with difficult names were perceived as more novel
than those with easy names, and perceived novelty mediated the influence of ease of pronunciation on
perceived risk. Perceived familiarity influences perceptions of risk. The effects of disfluency are not
limited to the perception of negative risks, but can also be observed in the perception of risks that people
consider desirable. People may want to take risky amusement park rides to enjoy the feeling of excitement
and adventure, their choice is influence by the ease with which the names of the amusement park rides
can be pronounced. Rides with difficult-to-pronounce names as more exciting and adventurous (and more
make them more feel sick) than rides with easy-to-pronounce names. Also stock with easy names after
company goes public outperformed stock with difficult-to-pronounce ticker symbols advantages
dropped when more information is available.
Using novel and interesting but difficult to pronounce names can have a backfire effect. Policy makers
should pay attention to fluency variables to alert consumers to potential hazards and to prevent the
erroneous impression that a hazardous product is safe simply because its name is easy to pronounce.
Fluency and future expectations: if it’s hard to imaging, it won’t happen
We tend to grossly mispredict future. Our experience of fluency contribute to these mispredictions. E.g.,
we feel less vulnerable to a disease when we find it difficult to recall relevant risk factors or to imagine the
disease’s symptoms & finding it difficult to imagine that we may fail to achieve our goals increases our
expectations for success. The more difficult it is to imagine the behaviour the less likely we think we are to
engage in it. Various communicators try to influence individual’s expectations and actions by asking them
to imagine a particular outcome entirely wrongheaded when it is difficult for the audience to generate
suggested images. So, attempts to engage audience imagination may not only be ineffective but can
backfire and produce the opposite intended effect. Simply asking people about the likelihood that they will
engage in a behaviour can make them actually engage in the behaviour base their perceptions of its
likelihood on the ease with which they can imagine it. When it is difficult to imagine the action in question,
hypothetical question will reduce its likelihood.
, Fluency and expected effort: it if’s hard to read, it’s hard to do
People misread the difficulty of reading the exercise instructions as indicative of the difficulty involved in
doing the exercise. If we want people to adopt a new behaviour, it is important that our recommendation
is not only conceptually clear and easy to follow, but also perceptually easy to process. To goal to present
the information in a unique and stylistically interesting way often leads to adopting a unique, but difficult-
to-process message. This can have the backfire effect of making the recommended behaviour seem unduly
demanding. But disfluency may be advantageous when the goal is to create a perception of effort (e.g.,
advantage for restaurants in describing dishes in a difficult to read font). Interesting how we present
requests: to enhance probability of compliance, reduce the size; also likely to result in smaller
contributions.
Fluency and commitment when giving people choice backfires
The experience of difficulty in making a choice can have substantial negative effects. The experience of
difficulty making these tradeoffs (by questions) can have various unintended consequences. It can create
decision paralysis and choice deferral, lower satisfaction with the decision process, cause people to switch
to a different option later, and reduce motivation and commitment to implement the choice. When easy to
read font less people postponed choice than when difficult to read font.
Fluency and liking: we like what’s easy on the mind
Mere exposure effect: the more often we see an object, the more we like it. Repeated exposure is just one
of many variables that facilitate fluent processing. Also more prototypical faces and symmetry are more
alike.
Fluency and processing style: do I need to think twice?
Fluency experiences can not only directly influence our judgements, but they can also influence how we
think. One way in which fluency shapes how we think is by influencing the level of abstractness with
which we construe information (questionnaire printed in difficult-to-read font describe thinks in more
abstract forms). The fluency of pronouncing the word influenced the level of construal with which the
word was explained.
Another way in which fluency shapes thought is by influencing how carefully we consider the information
at hand. Question “How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?” when easy-to-read font
most people did not noticed the error, with difficult-to-read font lot of people notice the error.
On a theoretical level, they suggests that fluency can influence judgment by (a) serving as a source of
information and (b) changing how information is represented and processed. From a particular
standpoint, the link between fluency and processing style suggests that under some circumstances the
experience of disfluency can be a portal for greater engagement and mindfulness.
Conclusion
People are highly sensitive to their experiences of ease of difficulty, but much less sensitive to where these
experiences come from. Fluency can influence subsequent judgments and behaviour through various
routes: first, people may directly attribute the experience of fluency to other aspects of the object or
behaviour in consideration; second, people draw on naïve theories to infer the meaning of any
encountered difficulty; third, fluency elicits positive affect, which, in turn, can feed into other judgments;
fourth, fluency can influence the way information is processed and increase heuristic thinking.
Article 1: Fluency and Social Influence Lessons from Judgement and Decision-making
Describing the undesirable behaviour as common, such messages can actually increase its frequency
rather than reduce it. To decrease the frequency of undesirable actions, other public serve messages ask
recipients to image potential negative outcomes negative outcomes are often abstract, such messages
can make these outcomes seem less likely to occur in contrast to what the message is intended. It appear
that not only is the content of thought generated prior to judgment or performance important, but the
ease or difficulty of generating those thoughts and images also may be a critical determinant of later
judgments and behaviour (profound influence n judgments & behaviour).
Fluency and social consensus: it sounds familiar, it must be popular
One of the most basic forces that influence our behaviour are the actions and opinions of others. We are
poor at tracking how often we’ve heard or seen something; instead we rely on whether it seems familiar
if it does, we’ve probably heard or seen it before. Incorporating a fluency perspective reveals a
powerful insight: To infer a norm, people draw on the experience of familiarity, but are insensitive to
where this fluency experience comes from. Hence, their perceptions may often be faulty and driven by
fluency variables that are unrelated to the actual frequency of the relevant opinion or behaviour.
Fluency and truth: it sounds familiar, it’s probably true
Variables that facilitate fluent processing (repetition, contrasting background, rhyme) create the
impression that the statement is true. This fluency-familiarity-truth link suggests that frequent repetition
and design qualities can increase the influence of a message beyond its effect on attention and retention.
At the same time, the fluency-familiarity-truth phenomenon present a problem when we attempt to
counter misleading information. Various types of messages try to correct for misleading information by
first repeating the false information and then refuting it with counter arguments. Although people may
rely on correct information not prominent in audience’s mind: once memory for substantive details
fades and people encounter the misleading statement again, they may increasingly be influenced by the
familiarity of the misleading information.
Fluency and risk: it’s hard to pronounce, it must be dangerous
Familiar options feel safer than unfamiliar ones. Hard-to-pronounce food seem as more harmful than food
with easy-to-pronounce names. The food additives with difficult names were perceived as more novel
than those with easy names, and perceived novelty mediated the influence of ease of pronunciation on
perceived risk. Perceived familiarity influences perceptions of risk. The effects of disfluency are not
limited to the perception of negative risks, but can also be observed in the perception of risks that people
consider desirable. People may want to take risky amusement park rides to enjoy the feeling of excitement
and adventure, their choice is influence by the ease with which the names of the amusement park rides
can be pronounced. Rides with difficult-to-pronounce names as more exciting and adventurous (and more
make them more feel sick) than rides with easy-to-pronounce names. Also stock with easy names after
company goes public outperformed stock with difficult-to-pronounce ticker symbols advantages
dropped when more information is available.
Using novel and interesting but difficult to pronounce names can have a backfire effect. Policy makers
should pay attention to fluency variables to alert consumers to potential hazards and to prevent the
erroneous impression that a hazardous product is safe simply because its name is easy to pronounce.
Fluency and future expectations: if it’s hard to imaging, it won’t happen
We tend to grossly mispredict future. Our experience of fluency contribute to these mispredictions. E.g.,
we feel less vulnerable to a disease when we find it difficult to recall relevant risk factors or to imagine the
disease’s symptoms & finding it difficult to imagine that we may fail to achieve our goals increases our
expectations for success. The more difficult it is to imagine the behaviour the less likely we think we are to
engage in it. Various communicators try to influence individual’s expectations and actions by asking them
to imagine a particular outcome entirely wrongheaded when it is difficult for the audience to generate
suggested images. So, attempts to engage audience imagination may not only be ineffective but can
backfire and produce the opposite intended effect. Simply asking people about the likelihood that they will
engage in a behaviour can make them actually engage in the behaviour base their perceptions of its
likelihood on the ease with which they can imagine it. When it is difficult to imagine the action in question,
hypothetical question will reduce its likelihood.
, Fluency and expected effort: it if’s hard to read, it’s hard to do
People misread the difficulty of reading the exercise instructions as indicative of the difficulty involved in
doing the exercise. If we want people to adopt a new behaviour, it is important that our recommendation
is not only conceptually clear and easy to follow, but also perceptually easy to process. To goal to present
the information in a unique and stylistically interesting way often leads to adopting a unique, but difficult-
to-process message. This can have the backfire effect of making the recommended behaviour seem unduly
demanding. But disfluency may be advantageous when the goal is to create a perception of effort (e.g.,
advantage for restaurants in describing dishes in a difficult to read font). Interesting how we present
requests: to enhance probability of compliance, reduce the size; also likely to result in smaller
contributions.
Fluency and commitment when giving people choice backfires
The experience of difficulty in making a choice can have substantial negative effects. The experience of
difficulty making these tradeoffs (by questions) can have various unintended consequences. It can create
decision paralysis and choice deferral, lower satisfaction with the decision process, cause people to switch
to a different option later, and reduce motivation and commitment to implement the choice. When easy to
read font less people postponed choice than when difficult to read font.
Fluency and liking: we like what’s easy on the mind
Mere exposure effect: the more often we see an object, the more we like it. Repeated exposure is just one
of many variables that facilitate fluent processing. Also more prototypical faces and symmetry are more
alike.
Fluency and processing style: do I need to think twice?
Fluency experiences can not only directly influence our judgements, but they can also influence how we
think. One way in which fluency shapes how we think is by influencing the level of abstractness with
which we construe information (questionnaire printed in difficult-to-read font describe thinks in more
abstract forms). The fluency of pronouncing the word influenced the level of construal with which the
word was explained.
Another way in which fluency shapes thought is by influencing how carefully we consider the information
at hand. Question “How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?” when easy-to-read font
most people did not noticed the error, with difficult-to-read font lot of people notice the error.
On a theoretical level, they suggests that fluency can influence judgment by (a) serving as a source of
information and (b) changing how information is represented and processed. From a particular
standpoint, the link between fluency and processing style suggests that under some circumstances the
experience of disfluency can be a portal for greater engagement and mindfulness.
Conclusion
People are highly sensitive to their experiences of ease of difficulty, but much less sensitive to where these
experiences come from. Fluency can influence subsequent judgments and behaviour through various
routes: first, people may directly attribute the experience of fluency to other aspects of the object or
behaviour in consideration; second, people draw on naïve theories to infer the meaning of any
encountered difficulty; third, fluency elicits positive affect, which, in turn, can feed into other judgments;
fourth, fluency can influence the way information is processed and increase heuristic thinking.
