The research showed that people tend toward appeals that aren't simply more positive or negative but are infused with emotionality, even when they're trying to sway an audience that may not be receptive to such language.
To sway an audience or bring around colleagues to their point of view in office meetings, most people intuitively use emotional language to enhance their persuasive powers knowing clearly that the effort could even backfire, researchers say. The research showed that people tend toward appeals that aren′t simply more positive or negative but are infused with emotionality, even when they′re trying to sway an audience that may not be receptive to such language. "Beyond simply becoming more positive or negative, people spontaneously shift toward using more emotional language when trying to persuade," said researcher Matthew D Rocklage of The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
According to the study that was published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, we might imagine that people would use very positive words such as "excellent" or "outstanding" to bring others around to their point of view. The findings, however, showed that people specifically used terms that convey a greater degree of emotion, such as "exciting" and "thrilling."
Understanding the components that make for a persuasive message is a critical focus of fields ranging from advertising to politics and even public health.
"It′s possible that to be seen as rational and reasonable, people might remove emotion from their language when attempting to persuade," Rocklage noted. In one online study, the researchers showed 1,285 participants a photo and some relevant details for a particular product available from Amazon.com. They asked some participants to write a five-star review that would persuade readers to purchase that product, while they asked others to write a five-star review that simply described the product′s positive features.
Using an established tool for quantitative linguistic analysis, the researchers then quantified how emotional, positive or negative, and extreme the reviews were. The data showed that reviewers used more emotional language when they were trying to persuade readers to buy a product compared with when they were writing a five-star review without intending to persuade.
Participants′ persuasive reviews also had more emotional language compared with actual five-star reviews for the same products published on Amazon.com. Importantly, the shift toward more emotional language appeared to be automatic rather than deliberative, the researchers noted.
Related News
10 Surprising Things That Can Cause You to Lose Muscle
How To Achieve The Perfect Nail Shape
15 Kitchen Herbs and Spices with Powerful Health Benefits
Growing Propagating and Using Aloe Vera
The Beauty Benefits of Exercise
Work stress may lead to irregular heart rate
The Key to Healthy Aging
Exercise can help boost memory through bone hormone: Study
Most Read
★Guinness World Record for bearded woman Harnaam Kaur
★Healthiest Foods For Women
★Work stress may lead to irregular heart rate
★Making handloom accessible
★8 Fruits that Burn Fat: Include Them In Your Diet For Great Health Benefits
★5 Dairy-Free Cheese Options Worth Trying
★Best and Worst Drinks for Weight Loss
★Do you want to be paid for sleeping well at night?
★The Diabetes Diet
★Cancer warning over skin bleaching treatment
★10 Most Effective Weight Loss Exercises For Torching Fat
★The Benefits of Yoga Beyond Flexibility
★Top Natural Body Care Tips for Women
★Tips to Even your Skin Tone Naturally
★Cancer risk of breast implants 10 times higher than first feared
★5 Yoga Poses that Can Give You a Glowing Skin
★12 Real Amazing Benefits Of Skipping For Weight Loss
★6 Best Oils for a Naturally Clear and Glowing Skin
★Carbohydrates and sugars
★Does ginger gene offer key to younger looking skin?
★Eating cheese does not raise cholesterol, study finds
★Try these 4 simple yoga asanas to gain weight
★5 Hot Yoga Poses For Rapid Weight Loss
★Learn to Do Vinyasa Yoga for Weight Loss
★Why most people use emotional words to persuade others
★Mushrooms could prevent risk of Dementia, scientists say
★The Key to Healthy Aging
★Women found to appear up to 20 years younger if they stay out of the sun
★Popular weight loss strategies
★23 foods that contain NO calories
★Hard work, no pay linked to mental health issues in comedians
★How to Gain Weight in 7 Days to Get Rid of the Skinny You
★Top 10 Homemade Fruit Packs for Glowing Skin
★12 Benefits of Hair Spa Treatment
★Expert reveals the snacks you should eat, according to your body type
★How to Do Face Cleansing at Home?
★Daily consumption of tea protects the elderly from cognitive decline
★Yoga Asanas To Prevent Hair Loss
★7 Must-Eat Fermented Foods for a Healthy Gut
★10 Weight Loss Tips to Make Things Easier (and Faster)
★Top 3 Core Exercises While Pregnant
★Whole-body vibration may be as effective as regular exercise
★Plum goodness for your hair!
★Correlation Between Almonds and Weight Gain
★7 Healthy Hacks for Your Pumpkin Spice Latte
★Why You Probably Shouldnt Take Diet Advice from Your CrossFit Coach
★Top 10 Fruits To Eat To Lose Weight Quickly
★The Brilliant Food Combo That Helps You Burn More Fat
★5 foods for healthy skin
★Know why milk should be a part of your beauty regimen