What’s an easy method to make people more likely to trust what you say?

.

via PsyBlog:

In four experiments, the impact of concreteness of language on judgments of truth was examined. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was found that statements of the very same content were judged as more probably true when they were written in concrete language than when they were written in abstract language. Findings of Experiment 2 also showed that this linguistic concreteness effect on judgments of truth could most likely be attributed to greater perceived vividness of concrete compared to abstract statements. Two further experiments demonstrated an additional fit effect: The truth advantage of concrete statements occurred especially when participants were primed with a concrete (vs. abstract) mind-set (Experiment 3) or when the statements were presented in a spatially proximal (vs. distant) location (Experiment 4). Implications for communication strategies are discussed.

Source: “Truth From Language and Truth From Fit: The Impact of Linguistic Concreteness and Level of Construal on Subjective Truth” from Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Want to learn more? Follow me on FacebookTwitter or RSS.  

Related posts:

Does name-dropping work?

Does obvious flattery work?

Should you kiss ass if you’re not good at it?

Things you didn’t know about negotiation, persuasion and influence

How do women bargain differently?

How important are the first five minutes of a negotiation?

7 of the most powerful persuasion techniques by expert Robert Cialdini (Video)

Optimal starting prices for negotiations and auctions

Can the strategic use of coffee make you more persuasive?

Do sold-out products influence what you buy?

Share

Subscribe to the newsletter