Chapter 4: Use Emotion with Intention
By Annie Neimand, Ph.D., Ann Christiano, and Lauren Parater
Research tells us that how we feel about an issue drives how we think about it. We form judgements based on the emotions we experience. When something makes us feel bad, we will find a reason to justify why it is wrong or avoid it. If something makes us feel good, we will justify why it is right (Graham et al., 2013; Haidt, 2012; Kahneman and Egan 2011; Howell and Shepherd, 2012).
Organizations communicating on behalf of refugees often tell stories of loss to help their audience imagine what it is like to be a refugee. However, these stories rely on negative emotions people do not want to experience. And telling these stories over and over again can create story fatigue. Science tells us that there is a full range of emotions we can use to engage our audience.
For example, research suggests people are more likely to share content if they experience high arousal (the activation of the autonomic nervous system) emotions like disgust, anxiety and amusement. People are less likely to share content if they experience low arousal emotions, like sadness or contentment (Berger, 2011).
Anger lowers our ability to take the perspective of others, and make people more likely to form quick, emotionally-driven decisions rooted in stereotypes. Collective anger, however, is a powerful emotion for mobilizing people against a common offender or enemy (Bodenhausen et al, 1993; Yip, 2018).
Neuroscientist Abigail Marsh (2019) suggests that seeing others experience fear, activates the part of the human brain that evolved to protect children. “Just as infants elicit care by signaling distress, the cues that adults use to signal distress elicit care more effectively when they evoke properties of infants. Expressions of fear reliably elicit care for this reason. Fearful vocalizations, body postures, and facial expressions not only signal acute and salient distress, but also all carry characteristics that resemble features of infants,” reported Marsh. When people express fear, their faces more closely resemble an infant’s round eyes, round cheeks and raised eyebrows. As a result, we are more likely to try to help them. Research also suggests that when we personally experience fear from a perceived threat, we either freeze, flee or fight.
Communicators in the humanitarian sector may try to pull on people’s “heartstrings,” believing negative emotions will inspire more empathy. But, research suggests that positive emotions are just as powerful in inspiring action.
When people feel awe — the overwhelming positive feeling of being diminished in the presence of something greater than the self — they are more likely to be altruistic, self-reflective and open-minded and generous (Piff et al. 2015, Rudd et al. 2012).
Humor, when used correctly, can capture the attention of an audience, and drive belief and behavior change toward an issue. Recent research on engaging ambivalent audiences on issues facing Syrian refugees found that satire, compared to news reporting, had higher entertainment value, lowered message discounting and increased support for refugees (Feldman and Borum Chattoo, 2018).
In another study, the same researchers found that ‘Stand Up Planet’, a comedic documentary about global development starring The Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj, increased viewers’ understanding and willingness to act, as compared to those who watched a somber documentary on global development. The researchers argued this is because comedy is relatable, uses positive emotions and transports the viewer into the story (Borum Chattoo and Feldman 2017). Experts in the science of comedy Peter McGraw, Lawrence Williams and Caleb Warren (2009) wrote, “Humor is an important psychological response that facilitates coping, social coordination, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Borum Chattoo and Feldman recommend that organizations work with comedians and pop culture platforms (like YouTube, Netflix, Comedy festival, screen writers), rather than relying on those in the organization to be funny. Organizations might host screenings of comedic documentaries followed by a discussion with the community affected and issue experts. It’s important to work with professional comedians because comedy only works when it’s truly funny.
Pride can motivate people to engage in altruistic behavior (Boezeman and Ellemers 2007). In her research, Michie (2009) writes that “pride motivates prosocial behavior in one of two ways. First, experiencing pride motivates people to act in ways that improve their image of self in the eyes of others. Second, pride motivates people to prosocial actions in order to feel better about themselves.”
You might also tell stories that tap into universal values and emotions, like love for children, wanting to protect your family, and romantic love. Karin Wahl-Jorgenson, a media scholar at Cardiff University, told us that the story of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian boy whose tiny body washed ashore fleeing war and violence, went viral because his story tapped into the universal value of love and protection of children. When we saw his image on the beach, we imagined a child we love. The image went viral and Google searches for the Syrian civil war reached their highest rates. TDonations to the Red Cross also spiked (Slovic et al. 2017).
In her essay ‘How to Make a Life’, American poet Elizabeth Alexander tells a love story of her life married to a man whose family were at one time refugees and what that meant for them as they built a life together. She brings the reader in through a shared emotional understanding of romantic love. Her poem creates space for us to imagine what it would feel like to marry and build a life with someone whose life has been shaped by this experience. Throughout the poem, she breaks dominant narratives and assumptions about refugees common in news media that may be held by the reader. Their story is a counter-narrative and unique way to bring audiences in and help them care about the experiences and needs of refugees through romantic love.
Are you trying to get people to take the perspective of others? Use awe or love, followed by a call to action that offers an opportunity for people to feel pride. Do you need to build support against a particular policy? Try using anger to frame the policy as a common enemy. Take care to evoke emotions that align with the actions you want people to take.
This special publication is part of a partnership between the UN Refugee Agency and the University of Florida Center for Public Interest Communications. In an effort to move past communication strategies that simply “raise awareness” of an issue, this partnership aims to connect those working in the humanitarian sector with applicable insights from behavioral, cognitive and social science to make a lasting difference on the issues that matter most.
Thank you to Alex Randall, Erica Bower and Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat for their time and insight for this project.
This special report shares how we can apply behavioural, cognitive and social science to build understanding and support for complex issues. We focused on climate change displacement as it is one of the critical and most complex areas of work facing the humanitarian sector — and the entire global community. The special report is divided into five chapters:
Introduction: Communicating the Complexity of Displacement in a Changing Climate
Chapter One: Make Room for the Most Affected
Chapter Two: Use Visual Language
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