Fluency ShortcutOpen Access

Fluency Shortcut

Statements that are easier to understand are more believable

Easy-to-repeat messages, such as the 2016 “Build a wall” political slogan feel more familiar and are likely to be spread by others.

Novemsky et al. (2003). Preference fluency and its effects on no-choice, compromise and attraction effects. Association for Consumer Research.

The study

Setup

Setup

205 people were shown a description of a digital camera printed in a font that was either easy to read (high fluency) or hard (low fluency).

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Results

Results

Results found that when easy to read, only 56% delayed choosing the camera, next to 71% when hard. Why? Fluency breeds familiarity, which we value greatly, because it’s unlikely to be harmful (Zajonc, 1968).

Study graph
np_read_2490885_000000

Novemsky et al. (2003). Preference fluency and its effects on no-choice, compromise and attraction effects. Association for Consumer Research.

Key Takeaways

1
1

Keep it short. Whether for marketing, nudges or political persuading, low syllable, easy-to-conceptualize slogans will feel dramatically more intuitive for consumers. Next to a competing message, they’ll believe the one that’s easier to understand (Schooler & Hertwig, 2005).

Takeaway image
2
2

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The mere act of repeating your message will increase its familiarity, which itself increases the extent to which it’s seen as true (Reber & Schwarz, 1999). Keep it consistent across your team and put it everywhere.

Takeaway image
3
3

Keep product benefits concise. Consumers actually like a product less the more positive traits they bring to mind (Menon & Raghubir, 2003).  This is because they start to associate your product with greater complexity and lower fluency. 

Takeaway image
4
4
Takeaway image
Takeaway image
np_read_2490885_000000
np_read_2490885_000000

In further detail

Takeaway image
Coglode Live

Coglode Live

Fluency Shortcut

Fluency Shortcut

Statements that are easier to understand are more believable

Easy-to-repeat messages, such as the 2016 “Build a wall” political slogan feel more familiar and are likely to be spread by others.

The study

Setup

205 people were shown a description of a digital camera printed in a font that was either easy to read (high fluency) or hard (low fluency).

Results

Results found that when easy to read, only 56% delayed choosing the camera, next to 71% when hard. Why? Fluency breeds familiarity, which we value greatly, because it’s unlikely to be harmful (Zajonc, 1968).

study graph
np_read_2490885_000000

In detail

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