Storytellers -
Use trusted, credible messengers
We all use a variety of mental shortcuts to assess what information to trust. It is less work to take a trusted person’s advice than assess all the information ourselves.
The person telling the story can help us decide if the information is trustworthy and credible. We also use mental shortcuts in deciding who to trust or who is credible, i.e., how someone looks, the institutions they come from, past experience with similar people or institutions.
Use trusted others to provide positive social proof and improve credibility of a message
- We move to accept beliefs and positions that we see frequently repeated in order to fit in.
- Repetition from trusted others confers credibility to the information you are trying to get across.
- This cuts both ways — repeating unhelpful information gives it credibility.
Use messengers with shared values
- It is important to find messengers that people can see represent their values.
- Use surprising messengers — for example, people seen as focused on ‘houses as assets’ talking about decent homes being the infrastructure for collective wellbeing.
Pair the right messenger with the right message
- Pair effective narratives with a messenger that is trusted/ credible to your audience.
- Choose messengers who will bring with them trust and credibility for your persuadable audience and who are in a position to transition/slide your audience into your helpful message.
Social proof shows people that others they consider trustworthy are willing to make or support changes. This is a more effective strategy to garner support for things like government investment in home health than presenting people with negative facts about the problem.