Researchers have found social causes that use faces in their campaigns garner greater support.
Researchers have found social causes that use faces in their campaigns garner greater support.
Any kind of face will do, even if it’s just an emoticon.
The team, hailing from South Korea and Canada tried out a number of causes, utilizing posters and objects with and without facial features to get the word out.
In one test, they created a drive for energy conservation and designed two posters requesting people to turn off lights not in use.
One of them had a plain light bulb with a slogan, and the other featured a bulb with a sad face and a tear rolling down its cheek.
Those polled were significantly more receptive to the request when it came from the despondent light.
Other experiments showed similar results. Trash got thrown away properly more often when the trashcan was crying.
Also, a greater number of people gave to a tree-planting initiative when the donation box was next to a tree poster featuring eyes and a mouth rather than a typical tree picture.
The researches surmised that showing somebody a non human object with a human-like face, known as anthropomorphism, they were struck with a feeling of ‘anticipatory guilt’.
