Change perspective to improve decision-making
People in one study rated a disease that kills 1,286 people out of every 10,000 as more dangerous than one that kills 24.14% of the population (Yamagishi, 1997).… Read the full article
Metaphor
Quotes on simplifying stats
What writers & others say
“Numbers, when they’re large enough, simply blow our mental fuses. People often find anything with an ‘-illion’ on the end incomprehensible.”
… Read the full articleMobile makeover for depression post
Communicator transforms piece for the small screen
Make mine to go.
More than half of your audience members now receive your emails, visit your web pages and engage with your social media channels via their mobile devices, not their laptops.… Read the full article
Is it live or is it metaphor?
‘Kick the habit’ lights up the brain’s motor cortex
When your readers kick, the motor cortex in their brains light up. If they read, “the player kicked the ball,” that cortex lights up as if they’re kicking.… Read the full article
Make size and scale visual
How tiny is tiny? How huge is huge?
How small is small? One-third the size of a ladybug? The size of a sprinkle on an ice cream cone?… Read the full article
Give numbers context
How can you help people see 6,000?
When 6,000 power poles went down in New Orleans during a series of ice storms, Entergy Senior Communications Specialist David Lewis needed a way to make that number tangible in an executive speech.… Read the full article
Metaphor at work
6 reasons analogy is more persuasive than literal language
Metaphor is more persuasive than literal language: It’s been proven in the lab.
Make that 41 labs over more than 50 years.… Read the full article
How readers process metaphors
People feel good when they figure analogies out
When readers encounter a metaphor, scholars believe, they:
- Process the literal meaning
- Analyze whether the literal meaning makes sense
- See the glitch in that meaning
- Seek the metaphorical meaning when the literal meaning doesn’t make sense
Some of the power of metaphor comes from readers’ pleasure or relief at figuring out the metaphorical meaning, researchers believe.… Read the full article
Up close and personal
Metaphor creates intimacy, builds understanding
People who read metaphors are more likely to understand what someone else is thinking.
Or so say Andrea Bowes and Albert Katz, two researchers at the University of Western Ontario (London).… Read the full article
‘The Emperor of All Maladies’
Siddhartha Mukherjee clarifies cancer with comparison
If you were … say … a brilliant oncologist and a spectacular writer, and you wanted to tell the story of cancer in a way that people who weren’t brilliant oncologists could understand and enjoy it, what literary tools might you use?… Read the full article