I have just discovered an  instructive lesson for marketers that comes from this study in Psychological Science (via Neuronarrative).

In the study, they found that showing a live example and getting people to relate to it doesn’t have much success when it comes to getting them to do something. Instead, providing someone with a narrative that they can follow, read and mentally envisage works better.

Participants in the study by Yale University’s psychology department were tested on their basis of being able to maintain self control (I wonder what that had to control).

One group of the participants watched people exercise self control, and therefore “took on their perceptive.”  While another group just read about self control.  The second group read a compelling story and as a result, made them *want* to take action.  By this comparison, they found that reading achieved the desired result. One of the reasons is because you are less likely to do it when you put yourself into someone else shoe.

Though the study was done mainly for the police officers and medical staff who have to relate to people every day, I believe there is also a lesson for marketers too.

Without doing an analysis of the impact of those shocking ads, I’d say that only by looking at alcoholism and drug abuse in society, these ads doesn’t ensue if you stray off the straight and narrow work. Judging from this, I wonder whether story based print advertising or PR-led case studies in the media would work better and actually bring about behavioural change.

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