The Science of What Makes People Care

 

The Science of What Makes People Care did a tremendous job in uncovering and disclosing the factors behind getting people to react appropriately. For social science workers, at one point or another their job involves moving people to act, and act in a certain way that is beneficial to their cause. To do this requires writing effectively, and compelling people to empathize with and support a designated cause. It involves moving from feelings to actions.

Two principles stood out as the most universal and all withstanding. Tell better stories and create meaningful calls to action. On the latter, meaningful calls to action do better than raising awareness. As the article says, Stop Raising Awareness already. Awareness is more often than not a lofty attempt at virtue signaling and has little to no effect in the real-world. Meaningful calls to action, however, can create concrete results. For example, imagine if the bus boycott s campaign (which was a meaningful, quantifiable call to action), only went as far as raising awareness towards what happened on buses. Would it have been as effective as a concise "Don't ride the bus" message? Most probably not. As humans we like to see the results of our actions, and the sooner we can, the better it is for our morale and for our future actions. This principle is why getting people to care with meaningful calls to action is paramount.