Decelerate the Pace to Develop Contemplation

When producing a short video to persuade others—such as for social media platforms—we’ll often aim to stuff in as many selling points as possible. We also may recall the evidence that young adults—often a top target audience for our persuasion efforts—seek the excitement of speed. The result is a fast-paced portrayal in the short video.
     A set of studies from researchers at Tilburg University, Goethe University Frankfurt, and University of Colorado Boulder argue for us to consider slowing down. Sometimes, slow-motion video significantly enhances persuasion.
     The findings apply when the short video portrays complex movements which the viewer finds to be pleasant. Portrayal of a basketball dunk or wave crashing on the shore, for instance. Decelerating the action facilitates comprehension and appreciation of the details. The advice doesn’t clearly apply to longer videos, in which slowing the action can come across as boring, foolish, or faked.
     Nor is the advice intended for situations where the video viewer is not seeking comprehension fluency. Examples of this include portrayals of unpleasant images or with a consumer who prefers incomplete comprehension. But in the proper circumstances of the studies, slow-motion videos increased ad sponsor preference and willingness to pay compared to equivalent normal-motion videos.
     The advantages of sometimes slowing down apply not just to short videos, but also to entire sales transactions. There are circumstances in which we do well to slow down the shopper as they settle on a course of action. Premature closure can have bad consequences ranging from returned items to safety risk.
     Easing the speed is a particular challenge when serving people high in a personality trait called “need for cognitive closure.” These consumers want to make shopping decisions promptly and then lock in those decisions. They’re uncomfortable with ambiguity. They are the polar opposite of shoppers who evidence a strong need to analyze as much information as possible before deciding.
     Researchers at Baylor University and University of Cincinnati found that shoppers with a high need for cognitive closure will slow down their decision making and work harder to analyze information when they believe the effort will be useful for making similar decisions in the future. An example of this is when the choice is about a newly introduced item or experience which is likely to become recurrent. This finding indicates that a marketer can encourage more contemplation during a transaction by highlighting those characteristics of a choice.

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