To increase awareness and make people more committed to great issues, organizations (whether for-profit or non-profit) can use several approaches.
Among them, emotion is a strong appeal; it establishes an immediate link to the cause and encourages people to express love and empathy. It primarily relies on striking images, as images -as opposed to words- have this immediate power of reaching conscience and heart without being analyzed by a rational mental process. For instance, a lot of people were moved by the images of the Haitian earthquake; this resulted in spontaneous gifts and campaigns for donation to support the country's recovery. Based on this same idea, organizations call for action using striking images; in its recent campaign which calls to donate for its program in Haiti, the American Red Cross uses images of the terrible situation for people over there and shows volunteers talking about the pressing and moving consequences of the disaster.
This type of communication approach is especially efficient for pressing needs where the message is to take a simple and well-defined action; donate, boycott, vote, etc. But emotion generally fails to engage people in taking and perpetuating a mass of relatively small actions toward a great, but far to reach issue.
For instance, most people would say they are concerned with environmental protection or that they are against modern slavery, and they would probably be moved by strong images related to these issues. But, if they want to take action in their daily life -instead of only boycotting or donating- it would be uneasy (and boring) to evaluate which habits of theirs have implications on these issues and to which extend, because these issues are very complex and rather abstract.
In addition, the fact that they are abstract and far to reach may simply deter some people to take action because they are not provided with a comprehensive and easy-to-grasp scope of the issue. Thus, claims and calls from the supporters of a cause may seem groundless or exaggerated.
At that point, numbers may have a key role to play, at least in Western countries. In effect, we seem to be obsessed with figures when it comes to assess and describe things with credibility. The first part of this blog post shows the difference between West and East concerning numbers and I think it reveals how frequently we use numbers and how they are critical to us to get the feeling to rationally comprehend a situation.
Figures seem to have this magic persuasion power because they seem unbiased, they refer to reason and pure sciences, in other word, they simply demonstrate and are incontestable (the idea that the experimental protocols used in different research to get these numbers are always unbiased is contestable though). That's why the use of statistics is so tremendous in today's world, in virtually every single imaginable field; from voting intention for the next election to the rating of the latest album of your favorite artist on a music review website. Even emotions are quantified through psychology measurement instruments, neurology studies or marketing surveys!
Therefore, quantifying far to reach issues and actions to be taken can be a solution to increase awareness and engage people because it would allow them to properly assess the issue and the means to address it. To do so, some organizations have developed funny self-assessment quiz that point out a set of critical habits and measure their implications on a great cause.
For instance, the website SlaveryFootprint.org calculates how many modern slaves are involved in providing the product you consume and where they are located on the planet.
Another example is MyFootPrint.org that calculates the amount of giga hectars necessary for supporting your carbon footprint; through your food footprint, your housing footprint, and your good and services footprint. The quiz results consist of the number of planets that would be necessary if everybody consumed like me; my personal result is 5,46 planets! Though the results may be disputed, this quiz at least sheds light on the main factors for environmental issues and gives an idea of the extend to which it affects your footprint (in effect, the amount of giga hectars is constantly updated after each answer to the quiz). In addition, information is provided on demand throughout the quiz. The website also analyzes your results, compared to your country's average, shows which biomes it affects and in which proportions, and finally, gives advice on how to reduce your footprint.
Alicia Lafage
Exchange Student at WFU Business School
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