Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance happens when our behavior conflicts with our beliefs. This causes mental discomfort. And in response we reject, avoid or try to rationalize information that conflicts with our beliefs.
Imagine this. You run the Texas Department of Transportation.
Texas highways and roads used to be clean and beautiful. But now they are becoming cluttered with beer cans, fast food wrappers and all sorts of garbage.
Every year Texas spends $20 million bucks picking up trash along the state's roads and highways.
How would you solve this massive litter problem and reduce the cost of litter pickups?
In 1985, the Texas Department of Transportation had to deal with this mess.
So they hire Tim McClure and his ad agency GSD&M.
Texas highways and roads had anti-littering signs saying "Keep Texas Beautiful". But littering kept growing 17 percent every year.
Research showed that young men between the ages of 18 and 35 were the major litter offenders in Texas.
Tim soon realized that the #1 barrier to behavior change in Texas was a psychological one: Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance happens when our behavior conflicts with our beliefs. This causes mental discomfort. And in response we reject, avoid or try to rationalize information that conflicts with our beliefs.
Fighting cognitive dissonance is incredibly hard.
If you're trying to persuade people to change their behavior, the worst way is to try to change their worldview. Specially if they're 18-35 year old males.
There's a saying in Texas, "If you want something done, tell a Texan he or she can't do it."
So, Tim came up with a new tagline: "βDonβt Mess with Texas".
Turns out it was a stroke of genius. The campaign was a home run. It reduced littering by 71% from 1986 to 1990.
The campaign worked because it framed the message to match the worldview of the target audience. It reached into the Texan psyche, "You don't mess with us but also don't litter."
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Takeaways for your business:
1. Marketers spend most of their energy, time and marketing budgets encouraging consumers to change behaviors. β
But there's a better alternative. Write copy that removes the psychological barriers blocking change. It's way more effective.
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2. People are always looking for lil hints and bits of information that confirms they're making the right choice (Hint: In Psychology this is known as confirmation bias).
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3. Don't try to persuade your target audience to change their worldview. Instead, adapt your message to THEIR worldview.
A good way is to use your audience's language, not yours.
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