A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Using Behavioral Insights in Visual Communication

I receive dozens of e-newsletters, blogs and online publications in my inbox every day.  If the subject line doesn’t grab me, there’s a pretty good chance that the email gets deleted.

But one that I read quite frequently is the one that comes from the Institute for Public Relations.  The content is researched-based and always relevant.

As an agency consulting with our clients, we regularly talk about the importance of having a good visual to accompany our news story pitches – and that holds true whether we are talking about print or broadcast.

Terry Flynn, Ph.D., McMaster University, IPR Trustee, and Tim Li, McMaster University, penned an article on this very topic that appeared in this week’s IPR newsletter.

According to the article, cognitive psychology research shows that images can strengthen communications in several different ways—they can capture attention, evoke emotions and easily convey large amounts of information in a relatively short amount of time. Several recent studies highlight these processes and yield valuable insights for communicators.

You can read more to learn the four considerations when using behavioral insights in visual communication.