In today’s communications era, we spend a good deal of our attention responding to the negative frame or alert. For example, one often hears such headlines as, “Tune in at ten, and learn how soccer moms are selling crack to finance extra school activities.” The negative is predominant in the media. Why? Because it attracts our attention. The adrenaline alert or response is wired into our genes and brain chemistry so we can jump into the trees to safety when the leopard slinks by.
Stress, fear, or worry, activate the norepinephrine system in the brain that is closely tied to these negative emotions. Associated with the activation of this system is a reduced capacity to notice. Our brains need to focus on the leopard and not the beauty of the leopard’s spots. So if I want someone not to notice the detail or logic of a position, using fear or the negative frame is a good way to accomplish it. You’ve heard the expression, “Nobody ever went wrong buying IBM.” The truth is, of course they have. Maybe they bought too much, or paid too much, or didn’t get the support the wanted, or are still using Lotus 123. But the frame is a negative one designed to create some uncertainty. Many people don’t even think about it. From a sales standpoint, the story in my post Rationality is Crazy, illustrates the impact of fear and lack of attention through the process of asking a plausible emergency question.
However, recent research (O’Keefe & Jensen, 2008) indicates that the negative frame will only take you so far in influencing behavior through messaging. Their research finds that there is a slight positive effect at persuasion for messages that were positively framed. It may be simply that we prefer thinking about the beautiful lady and not the leopard, pleasant thoughts compared to dark thoughts. There is other evidence that framing in a positive way helps activate the dopamine circuitry in the brain that is associated with positive emotions, happiness and satisfaction. Does the combination of the positive and negative have some synergistic effect? Is it better to just say smoking causes lung cancer, or if you quit you will have whiter teeth, or both? There is some evidence that the combination is more powerful than either alone. But too much negative wears us out. That’s why news media add puppy stories next to murder stories. Sometimes the transitions are ludicrous.
Positive frames seem a little more difficult to develop than negative frames. But they are worthwhile. Again, a frame limits the debate, ties it to a familiar story or metaphor and links it to emotion. While brand taglines are not typically places where you see great positive framing, I can think of a few strong examples in the consumer market. My favorite is Hallmark’s “When you care enough to send the very best.” Breaking it down… I am caring. I belong to the group of caring people which is an “Inclusion narrative,” not those other selfish bastards, which is a “Fundamentalist narrative.” And, I have taken the market position of best. Everyone else is second best. Every time you hear this on TV, it is positioned with a caring loving scene guaranteed to make you cry.
Another example is Allstate’s “Your in good hands with Allstate.” The image of hands, of protective and caring hands, allows us to identify with touch and feeling, and is juxtapositioned against the catastrophic background scene, but with someone helping the victims.
The problem with negative framing is that it creates negative emotion regardless of your intent. In the abortion debate, one side positioned originally positioned itself as “Pro-choice” and the other side as “Anti-abortion”. The first is positive and the second is negative. The value of the position doesn’t matter because in the second case, you are against something. In response, the other side became “Pro-life” and framed themselves positively. Who can be against life? In doing so, they also co-opted the term “Pro.” But which is more intuitive… life or choice. The balance of messaging swings back toward the life frame.
And in the balance of messaging and framing, try to be positive more often than negative. Just do it.
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Driving Sales Through Customer Focused Marketing
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (24×7)