Present casting: a better way to inspire action.
Our most serious issues have one big thing in common — their consequences usually aren’t immediate. The impact of our behavior, be it individual or collective, usually has a long time horizon. We can eat poorly for decades before developing heart disease. And despite increasingly dangerous weather patterns, climate change remains a burden for future generations.
The fact is, our brains are wired to find the present more real than an abstract future. In behavioral science terms, this is a wicked cocktail of hyperbolic discounting, present bias, and temporal myopia. And it’s destroying us.
The trouble is, most cause messaging doesn’t take this into account, much less use it to the issue’s advantage. Here are the conventional framing tactics I see most often:
1 |
RationalizationExplain cause and effect in detail. Give the facts, often with statistics, and expect corrective action. “Nine people die every day in the U.S. from distracted driving.” |
2 |
PreventionMake the problem simple. Give the audience advice on how to avoid it, and hope the problem dissipates over time. “Just Say No.” |
3 |
Shock and AweShow the worst-case scenario. Make it graphic, often disturbing, and rely on fear to make the audience take heed. “Scared Straight” programs. |
4 |
MoralizingDepict a battle between good and evil. Ask the audience to do the “right” thing, making the current behavior a character flaw. “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” anti-pirating message. |
While logical, these approaches don’t have the best track record inspiring action. The problem is that logic, instruction, shock, and moral shortcomings don’t override our instinctive avoidance of analytical thinking and the human preference for present-moment refuge. Enter an approach my coworkers and I call “present casting.” It makes messages more actionable by framing consequences closer to the here and now.
My most handy example is the contraceptive access campaign our firm began in 2017, “No Drama.” Conventional pregnancy prevention efforts try to build demand for birth control by urging young women not to jeopardize their future. Trouble is, “the future” is WAY out there, especially when you’re 17. But facing stigma from a sexist pharmacist, or getting a provider to tell you exactly how much an IUD costs, or struggling to tell a parent you’re pregnant — that’s drama that’s relatable RIGHT NOW. So, we framed our program as the antidote to these more immediate negatives.
Present casting is a powerful setup for a first step toward the behavior you’d like to change. Just don’t expect your audience to adopt wholesale habitual reform on day one. For the “No Drama” program, that first step was requesting a contraceptive counseling appointment. (One in three women of childbearing age did.) When the promise of hassle-free birth control was kept, these women stayed with the program. And the result has been a 58% reduction in unintended pregnancies over seven years.
While some audiences need true education, many don’t. The vast majority of us already have a pretty good idea what’s safe, better and more equitable. We just need real-time reasons to take the first small step toward improving our lives. That first step prompts a major psychological shift called the Fresh Start Effect, boosting motivation and creating distance from past failures. Now who couldn’t use a dose of that?
To new beginnings,
Kevin
