Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2020
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to resolve mixed findings about which type of evidence is more persuasive—statistical or anecdotal information. In a meta-analysis of 61 papers exploring the persuasive impact of evidence type, we establish that, in situations where emotional engagement is high (e.g., an issue associated with a severe threat, involving a health issue, or affecting oneself), statistical evidence is less influential than anecdotal evidence. However, in situations where emotional engagement is relatively low (e.g., an issue associated with low threat severity, involving a non-health issue, or affecting others), statistical evidence is more persuasive than anecdotal evidence. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, and how to improve persuasive messaging by considering the contextual effectiveness of both anecdotes and statistics.
Recommended Citation
Freling, T.H., Yang, Z., Saini, R., Itani, O.S. and Abualsamh, R.R., 2020. When poignant stories outweigh cold hard facts: A meta-analysis of the anecdotal bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 160, pp.51-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.01.006
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.01.006
Comments
Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.01.006