8 Studies Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity

Words we should remember “Psychological research on cognitive fluency shows why easy to understand = more profitable, more pleasurable, more intelligent and safer.”

H/T Peter Seligman

Click Here To Read: 8 Studies Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity

Findings (Via PsyBlog)

1. Complex writing makes you look stupid

Many of us did it in school: tried to impress teachers with fancy language and convoluted sentences, assuming it would make us look clever. As we soon discovered, though, most people can’t carry it off.

2. Difficult names are dangerous

As we’ve already seen, people assume that things which are difficult to pronounce are also risky. Song and Schwarz (2009) found that the fictional food additive Hnegripitrom was considered 1 point more dangerous on a 1 to 7 scale than Magnalroxate.

3. Foreigners are more difficult to think about

So names that are difficult to pronounce seem to have negative connotations? That doesn’t bode well for migrants whose names are unfamiliar in their adopted countries.

4. Buy shares with fluent names

Before we leave names behind, check out this neat study which suggests a way to increase your stock market profits. Alter and Oppenheimer (2006) wondered if companies with pronounceable ticker codes, like GOOG for Google, will benefit from the fluency effect by trading more profitably.

5. But…hesitate and they’ll remember

Right, enough fantasising about using fluency for stock market riches. Perhaps in some areas there is an advantages to be had from a lack of fluency?

6. People buy fluent products

Needless to say people have wondered if this cognitive fluency lark could be used to make people part with their cashola. It can. Novemsky et al. (2007) manipulated the fluency of a product by listing its features in either an easy or hard to read font. Easy to read fonts doubled the number of people willing to purchase the product.

7. Fluency gives us pleasure

Things that are easy to process give us a momentary burst of pleasure. When people look at objects which are easy to pick up, they produce tiny smiles compared with when they are shown objects which are difficult to pick up (Cannon et al., 2009—measured using electromyography). Sensorimotor fluency gives people a tiny twinge of pleasure.

8.Fluency allows effortless thinking

Fluency also affects the way we make decisions.

Broadly speaking our brains have two systems for reasoning. The system we are consciously aware of is slow and analytical, while the one that operates below the level of conscious awareness is quick, effortless and automatic. That’s our intuition.

Click Here To Read: 8 Studies Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity