Visual persuasion – choosing the best images

Visual persuasion – choosing the best images

By Heather Maitland

SUMMARY

Heather Maitland looks into research showing that images are the most powerful tool we have - working in some unexpected ways. Effective images need to trigger pre-programmed, emotion-laden responses to visual cues and here we discover how to choose images that will do that.

Research shows that images are the most powerful tool we have, working in some unexpected ways. Banking websites that have no images can be seen as untrustworthy, the image on that postcard sent by friends or family evokes strong emotions which really do make us want to travel, emotive images inserted in political TV ads for just 30 milliseconds impact on viewers’ evaluation of candidates. Why do they work so well? Neuroscientists have found that emotions are used as a kind of indexing system for memories.

Resource type: Research | Published: 2013