i’m twice as big (but i won’t tell you how much)
I happened to upload a picture on facebook not following what I usually do – just use iPhoto – and I encountered this image.
As you make your choice to upload specific pictures you are asked for a preference in the quality. In stead of giving you the absolute time it would take to upload (a.k.a. 3 min or 6 min) they give you a relative number. Someone at facebook is quite brilliant at understanding people.
We don’t think in absolute terms. We think in relative ones. Telling me that something is 100 grams and another is 200 grams, doesn’t mean much to me. Telling me a story about it – like, this one is 100 grams, and the other one is TWICE as much and will satisfy for TWICE as long (or twice more for the same amount of time, you choose your story) – is much more powerful as it gives us additional context that employs our empathy and emotions to deliver a desirable course of action. In this case, choosing the faster upload (of the same picture which will be stored as a smaller file on facebook’s servers and thus will allow more people to upload more pictures on them).
Pure brilliance in only the phrasing of a definition.
I agree and I disagree
I completely agree on the fact that most of us think in relative term and not in absolute ones. But I think on the example you’re mentionning (facebook), there’s something missing. In my opinion, people need to have a scale to interpret the relative informations they are given.
To be absolutely effective, I think facebook should add the needed time to upload a standard photo and then people can made their mind about the “takes 10 times longer”.
So I disagree with the “someone at facebook is brilliant at understanding people”… I think he almost did it
J.
i’ve been thinking of that lately when looking at nutrition information labels…
why do they put fat in grams when the majority of the population here in the US has no idea what a gram really is…
at least they put the percentage, but otherwise its basically meaningless. they could put (10x more fat than a healthier alternative) and i think people might make choices more easily!
chris – they would probably stop eating greasy food, which would tank a few industries…:)
jonathan – i see what you are saying about adding the absolute time. however, to my knowledge, once relative terms are introduced they override the absolute ones. it is just easier and faster for the brain to know: this is twice as fast; then this runs at 2km/h and this at 4km/h, therefore the second one is twice as fast as the first one. i wonder what exceptions are there though, i am sure are mental states in which possibly relative vs absolute terms don’t really matter. just a guess for now.