The persuasive effect of visualisation

1. Does imagining make it so?
The persuasive effect of visualisation

2. This study took place in 1982 in Tempe, Arizona – a town
where cable tv was just starting to appear
Homeowners were visited by students asking them to
complete surveys for a project
One group were given information about the benefits of
cable tv before being asked to complete a questionnaire

3. Cable tv subscribers
benefit from broader
entertainment services,
they can plan which events
they want to enjoy and
spend more time at home
with their family without
the hassles of going out

4. I would be grateful
if you could answer
these questions for
me now
No problem

5. Students visited a second group of homeowners also
asking them to complete surveys
However rather than being told of generic benefits of
cable tv, this group were asked to imagine themselves
in a scenario where they were personally benefiting
from having cable tv in their lives

6. Take a moment to imagine
how cable tv will provide you
with broader entertainment
services, how you’ll be able
to plan which events you
want to enjoy and spend
more time at home with
your family without the
hassles of going out

7. I would be grateful
if you could answer
these questions for
me now
No problem

8. A month after the homeowners had been visited by
students, cable tv arrived in Tempe
A local cable tv company approached the
homeowners offering them subscriptions

9. No thanks
Would you like to
sign up to cable tv?

10. Yes please!
Would you like to
sign up to cable tv?

11. Homeowners who had been given information about
the generic benefits of cable tv subscribed at a rate of
20% – the same rate as the rest of the neighbourhood
who had not been visited by students
Homeowners who had been asked to visualise
themselves enjoying the specific benefits of cable tv
subscribed at a rate of 47%

12. Conclusions
1. Just hearing about the benefits of cable tv was no more
effective at persuading people to subscribe than giving them no
information at all
2. However, asking people to imagine themselves benefiting from
cable tv in specific ways, made the benefits more tangible and
therefore persuasive

13. Reference
Self-relevant scenarios as mediators of likeliness estimates and compliance: does imagining make
it so?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43 (1982) 89—99
Larry Gregory, Robert Cialdini & Kathleen Carpenter