The power of verbs and expressions as intuitive motivators in texts

Social media posts, speeches, advertising slogans and leaflets… Why do some of them inspire us to act while we pass others by with indifference? How can we motivate others? What signals, at the linguistic level, can persuade us to take action? How can we learn to identify these subtle methods of persuasion? Researchers from SWPS University investigated this issue.

“Even though collective behaviors, such as protests and support campaigns, are often inspired by passionate speeches or posts on social media, little research has been devoted to the language used in such situations. We assumed that effective calls to action would consist of verbs, and words or expressions related to planning, says Dr. Magdalena Formanowicz,” a psychologist at SWPS University.

In three studies, experts from SWPS University and the University of Padua tested whether the inclusion of verbs and expressions referring to specific tasks would affect the effectiveness of a text. The results were published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Over 1.8 thousand people took part in the studies. In the first study, participants created a leaflet to mobilize others to participate in environmental action, volunteering or voting in elections, or a leaflet expressing their thoughts on the importance of one of the above activities. In the next two studies, other groups of participants evaluated the texts created in the first study.

“Our studies clearly show that if people want to encourage others to act, they particularly often use two linguistic categories. One category includes verbs that are carriers of agency (e.g. do, go, take, prepare) and increase the level of mobilization. Another linguistic determinant of such messages is providing a concrete method of executing the planned action,” says the author of the study.

How to motivate instinctively?

The participants who wanted to mobilize others to take environmental action, advised what to do: “Turn down the heating or air conditioning and wear weather-appropriate clothes.” “Dry you clothes outside instead of using a tumble dryer and only wash clothes when they are really dirty.” “Avoid fast fashion. Wear clothes as long as possible and repair them if necessary.”

Those who focused on why the topic was important, wrote much more abstractly: “Environmental action has never been as broad and important as it is today. Up until this point in human history, it was all about progress. Awareness of the impact we have on the planet has grown in the last few decades.”

When all the texts were shown to another group of participants, firstly, the participants knew which texts were mobilizing, and secondly, their decisions were motivated by the presence of verbs and specific terms.

“We communicate largely instinctively and each of us is an intuitive motivator to some extent. We are immersed in language. By observing persuasive messages, we learn certain regularities that occur in them, we learn not only to formulate them, but also to react to them,” Dr. Formanowicz explains.

The study may be a step in understanding how language affects the formation of collective action. Examples illustrating the described mechanism in practice can be found in political communication and advertising.

“For example, the slogan used in connection with the Brexit campaign (‘Vote leave’) provided clear instructions on what citizens should do: vote to leave the EU. There are also many examples in advertisements: ‘Just do it’ (implicitly: train), or ‘Think differently,'” Dr. Formanowicz comments.

Verbs give power

Previous studies have shown, for example, that sentences including action verbs are evaluated as more truthful, and reviews using more present tense verbs are perceived as conveying a sense of confidence. Girls are more likely to engage in science activities when encouraged with a verb (e.g., “Let’s do science!”) than with a noun (e.g., “Let’s be scientists!”).

“Verbs activate systems in the brain that are responsible for arousing attention. If you see a message that is saturated with them, you feel that you may have to react to this message,” says the psychologist from SWPS University.

Planning matters

In addition, using words in the message that refer to concrete tasks, ones that are easy-to-imagine and plan, makes them seem more feasible. For example, “I will change the chain on my bike” is a specific and imaginable task, while “I will prepare for the trip” is quite abstract. The former are easier to remember than the abstract tasks, they also evoke concrete and vivid images and enable faster and deeper processing of information.

“To encourage someone to go mountain climbing, you need to arouse the intention to act in them. However, saying ‘Let’s climb this peak’ will remain nothing but an intention, unless you turn it into a concrete plan in which you describe how to do it and when,” explains Dr. Magdalena Formanowicz.

Conscious reaction to peripheral persuasion

The psychologist emphasizes that the results of the study also indicate what to pay attention to and how to recognize that someone is trying to convince you to do something. Only by being aware of this is there a chance to decide whether or not to give in to such persuasion.

“There are persuasive elements that we call peripheral. They will not change your attitudes or deep beliefs, because this would require broader argumentation. However, when you are busy with your duties, your working memory is overloaded, it is difficult to filter and analyze the influx of information.

“In such a situation, you may sometimes register messages with peripheral persuasion as convincing and, for example, click on a mobilizing post that attracts you with such peripheral signals. When it comes to subtle methods of persuasion that may escape your consciousness, it is important whether you are able to detect them and defend yourself against them,” the psychologist from SWPS University concludes.