When I first entered my career, I despaired at the immeasurability of public relations – its inability to be quantified and its ease to be swept under the carpet or dismissed by other arms of a business that may have more obvious, tangible impact. Last week, however, I was introduced to how behavioural economics can be applied to communications.
After immersing myself in the field – or perhaps more aptly, dipping my toe in – alongside the PRCA’s Adrian Wheeler, I can proudly say I’ve had a change of heart. I now possess an appreciation for the emotion and immeasurability that underpin our field: a newfound love for the intangible, the nuanced, and the incalculable.
The crux of behavioural economics is that emotion, far more than rational thinking, drives the bulk of decision-making and persuasion. It is the other side of the coin to classical economics, which posits that humans are entirely rational beings who always make decisions based on logical self-interest and complete information. We know this to be false. Think about the sunk cost fallacy. How often have you seen a boring movie through to the end just because you’ve already sunk an hour into it? The time is already gone – continuing just wastes more time. Every single day, we make decisions that don’t really make sense but feel right.
Behavioural economics is, therefore, the appreciation that we are imperfect, irrational, and deeply emotional beings. Much of this can be applied to public relations, where emotions, perceptions and intuition rule the roost. How do you quantify a strong reputation, for example? We can’t measure it directly, but we can feel its presence – and the sting of its loss.
It begs the question – if imperfect decision making is so integral to actual consumer behaviour, why do we cling so tightly to what can be quantified? We are forever lusting after the solutions that offer demonstrable causality and provide clear ‘bang for the buck.’ Of course, we must be spending in a strategic way, but this obsession and dogmatic approach may be denying us our best results.
This is where PR has a unique edge. It captivates audiences and drives real change, often in ways other forms of marketing cannot. In today’s saturated media landscape, where we’re inundated with information overload, merely ‘being seen’ is no longer enough to cut through the noise. For those of us in the business of persuasive communications, the mission goes beyond changing minds – it’s about creating messages that resonate with people on an emotional level too.
It begs the question – if imperfect decision making is so integral to actual consumer behaviour, why do we cling so tightly to what can be quantified?
This matters to us in countless ways. Behavioural economics tells us that people are more likely to trust messages from sources they view as credible and impartial. PR relies on earned media, which carries more weight because it appears as third-party endorsements, not paid promotion. Advertising, by contrast, suffers from persuasion knowledge, where consumers know it’s trying to sell to them.
Behavioural economics also tells us that people look to others’ behaviour to guide their own. PR works because a story in the press or a trending hashtag signals social validation, making brands appear popular and trustworthy. Ads try to simulate this, but PR amplifies social proof more authentically.
Narrative is king. Our brains instinctively turn isolated moments into meaningful stories. Unlike other forms of marketing, a well-crafted PR narrative can engage audiences by weaving information into a compelling story. How often have we seen stories told in context, where products are positioned as solving social issues or fitting into a wider trend? We absorb narratives easier than product claims – and tend to reject overt sales pitches.
These learnings are all things I know I understood before but didn’t fully appreciate. The discovery of behavioural economics has dispelled my prior doubts about public relations as disappointingly immeasurable, revealing it instead as a field that embraces imperfection and values the unquantifiable. Understanding that PR influences behaviour effectively because it works with – rather than against – our cognitive biases has given me newfound confidence in the sector and its endurance. For too long, PR has wrestled with a negative perception, particularly in a business world that often prioritises hard data and dismisses anything else as fluff. Yet, behavioural economics provides a scientific framework that explains why PR’s focus on relationships, stories, and emotional resonance yields such profound results.
Therefore, far from being intangible, the impact of public relations, when guided by behavioural economics, is deeply rooted in the very fabric of human cognition and emotion. It provides the confidence that by appealing to how our minds truly operate – rather than how we imagine they do – we can drive meaningful, lasting behavioural change. This isn’t just good practice, it’s applied science!
As long as humans remain irrational and deeply emotional (much like I am on a Monday morning) I’m certain PR will live on!
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