14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers writing in this April 23's issue of the Journal of Neuroscience maintain that, according to their investigations, smokers respond better to strong arguments rather than flashy editing.
More precisely, they are more likely to kick the habit when presented with ads based on well pieced together arguments in favor of quitting smoking than they are when introduced to ads involving plot twists, loud sounds and rapid switches of scene.
The researchers explain that this is because, unlike the ads belonging to this second category, the ads that pack strong arguments stimulate an area of the brain that is known to be in charge of triggering behavioral changes.
According to EurekAlert, the brain region which responds better to ads containing strong arguments and tends to ignore ads based on flashy editing is known as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC, for short).
Commenting of the findings of this investigation, Dr. Daniel D. Langleben, M.D., now working as a psychiatrist at the Center for Studies of Addiction at Penn Medicine, made the following observations:
“We investigated the two major dimensions of any piece of media, content and format, which are both important here.”
“If you give someone an unconvincing ad, it doesn't matter what format you do on top of that. You can make it sensational. But in terms of effectiveness, content is more important. You're better off adding in more sophisticated editing and other special effects only if it is persuasive.”
The researchers came to understand that smokers react better to strong arguments and tend to disregard flashy editing following their asking a total of 71 volunteers living in the Philadelphia area to watch several such ads and monitoring what happened inside their brains as they did so.
Follow-up consultations carried out about one month after the volunteers had watched the ads revealed that those presented with strong arguments had lower levels of nicotine in their urine.