The Why #97 Why must all good things come to an end?
The Fugees. Breaking Bad. Flappy Bird. The Chicken El Maco with accompanying shaker fries. And now, The Why.
Yes, your favourite newsletter, that you may or may not have actually signed up for (jokes! You totally signed up) is going the way of the fidget spinner. It burned bright. It touched lives. And now, it’s headed for a better place.
But why do the best things always seem to end before their time? Could it be that it’s just the natural cycle of life? Perhaps it’s a timely reminder of our own mortality and ultimate insignificance on this small blue rock spinning through space? Or maybe, just maybe, there’s something behavioural-sciencey at play…
Narrative Bias
Narrative Bias is our tendency to make sense of the world through structured stories rather than fragmented facts. A 2016 meta-analysis conducted by Braddock and Dillard looked at data from multiple prior studies to determine the power of narratives when it comes to shaping peoples’ beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behaviours.
One notable study involved participants reading either a story about a person affected by a health condition or a list of facts about the condition. To the surprise of nobody reading this newsletter, participants who read the narrative format developed stronger intentions to adopt preventative measures compared to those who were presented with data alone.
The meta-analysis proved something that we all instinctively know - people are more likely to believe and remember information when it’s presented as a story than when it’s presented as facts and figures.
The thing about stories is that they need a beginning, a middle and an end. Without a defined end point, fresh ideas grow stale and once loved TV shows, fashion trends and corporate newsletters outstay their welcome.
As it happens, The Why isn’t so much going away, but rather taking up residency as a whole new section within the very excellent Weirdo newsletter. As you may have read late last year, Hardhat became part of Thinkerbell and we’re almost done bringing our clients, teams, capabilities and beloved email subscribers together in one big, happy, Brady Bunch style agency mash up.
97 editions in, I can confirm that writing Thy Why has been a true labour of love (with occasional bursts of annoyance 🙃). There’s something incredible that happens when you force yourself onto a treadmill that demands learning, coherent writing, creativity and hitting ‘publish’ at least once every two weeks. I highly recommend it.
Of course it hasn’t happened alone and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the team at Good One Creative for the brilliant illustrations that have accompanied each edition, as well as Sophia, Brendon, Sherlyn and Josh who have all chipped in over the years.
But wait, where were we? Oh yes, Narrative Bias. For brands, Narrative Bias is a timely reminder of the importance of compelling storytelling. Whether we’re selling muffins, microprocessors or multivitamins, look for ways to replace facts and figures with beginnings, middles and ends - just the way humans like it. If you’re stuck, you can always call Thinkerbell for help (we’re pretty good at this stuff).
Behaviourally yours,
PS If you missed the last edition, you can still check out why sane people enjoy scary stuff here.
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Bad Decisions Podcast
To learn more about Behavioural Science, tune into the Bad Decisions podcast.
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