Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Speed Up Interest by Slowing Down

You ever watched paint dry? How about a high-speed car chase? It turns out slowing down video can make it better but only if the scene is sufficiently fast or complex. And the slowing down accentuates the affect in both directions – positive/negative videos get judged more positively/negatively. A child or animal running with joy […]

Learn More May 24, 2023

The Story of Story

It’s a real page turner. The book you can’t put down because you’re so engrossed. You mentally “transport” into the narrative world, experiencing the story events and characters’ emotions as if they were your own. That’s powerful stuff. So powerful that’s probably not surprising that being transported does the following, Increases positive feelings Makes one […]

Learn More May 22, 2023

Attraction or Persuasion?

Is your fundraising persuading or attracting? Persuasion is convincing potential donors to contribute to your cause, often through emotive appeals and urgent calls to action. Attraction is aligning with donors’ existing values and passions and fostering organic support. Persuasion aims to align a donor’s perspective with the cause, attraction aligns the cause with the existing […]

Learn More May 19, 2023

The Double-Edged Sword of Social Proof in Fundraising

Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon whereby individuals tend to emulate actions and behaviors of others to shape their own. It’s grounded in the belief that if many people engage in a certain behavior, it must be beneficial or correct, thereby prompting others to follow suit. Here’s an example fundraising message, “On average, […]

Learn More May 17, 2023

Is Your Fundraising Like Old Wine in New Bottles?

The jangle fallacy occurs when two similar or identical things are assumed to be different because they are labeled differently – old wine in new bottles. This is rife in psychology where the term originated. My fan faves, Grit. In high school my kids were required to read the Duckworth book. Grit was a new […]

Learn More May 15, 2023

Show Don’t Tell Emotions

If I had a nickel for every time I started a blog post with this line I’d have exactly $1.15. Twenty-three times. An inflation adjusted synonym might be “If I had a dollar…” Speaking of synonyms, said the worst and longest windup, cry and weep are synonyms. They are also action verbs. And these action […]

Learn More May 12, 2023