Apply our effective strategies to your work.
Values-Based Messaging
We all know that fact-battling doesn’t work and that values-based messages are a key aspect of effective persuasion. But how exactly do you create this type of message? It requires research to identify your audience’s values, deep listening to learn about the barriers that hold them back from acting in line with those values, and extensive testing to get the tone and messenger right for the audience you’re trying to move. This message was a top performer with our audience of moderate white women, moving them to support schools teaching about the ongoing effects of racism and discrimination.
Watch our Executive Director Jackie Payne explain the journey from seeing disinformation on critical race theory being used to trigger fears, particularly among suburban women, to creating an ad to effectively combat this grievance-based narrative.
Now you try! Use our interactive digital worksheet below to generate ideas for values-based messaging on an issue you care about and dig deeper into the specific components of an effective message for additional tools to set you up for success. Then explore the lessons from neuroscience to learn how to deliver the message in a way it can be heard.
Remember, this is not a “one and done” approach. Year-round engagement with voters is essential for lasting impact, both in terms of hearing from your audience to understand their perspective over time and to repeat messaging enough for persuasion to stick.
Neuroscience and Behavioral Psychology
Understanding how our brains work to process information and make decisions is another key aspect of any effective persuasion strategy. When we work with, rather than against, the brain’s natural processes it sets us up for success.
We’ve partnered with the scientists at Mindbridge to bring you lessons from neuroscience to apply to your work. Look for the content with the orange stripe and their logo below and throughout this playbook for neurohacks you can use!
Internal Conscious & Unconscious Systems
According to cognitive neuroscience and psychology, the vast majority of everything we do is unconscious. This means we aren’t as rational as we think we are, and that facts and stats alone won’t change hearts and minds. Learn how this impacts behavior and what’s needed to turn down the noise in the over-crowded sea of information and disinformation we’re all living in to create opportunities for our brains to take in a more complete picture.
Know who you are talking to
The Rider and the Elephant: The elephant, our unconscious system, is intuition and instinct. It reacts quickly! The rider, our conscious system, is slower, more rational, and takes effort to engage. Just as the rider and the elephant have to communicate to reach their destination, our internal conscious and unconscious systems both play a role in decision-making.
