Affect heuristic
Feelings about something steer judgements of its risks and benefits.
Where it applies
Two of the eight page areas.
How to use it
Three ways to use it, and one to avoid.
- Build positive feeling before the ask with warm, human imagery and tone.
- Remove things that create unease near the buy button, such as clutter, error states or alarming wording.
- Treat this as a design idea to test.
- Avoid: emotive framing that plays down genuine product risks or safety information, because marketing must not materially mislead.
What the research found
Risk and benefit judgements move in opposite directions, including for products.
Risk and benefit judgements moved in opposite directions, but describing benefits as low did not raise perceived risk.
Finucane and colleagues found judged risk and benefit moved in opposite directions. Two well-powered replications by Efendić and colleagues confirmed this, except that describing benefits as low did not raise perceived risk. King and Slovic found the same pattern in lab ratings of new consumer products, but no study measured buying.
Key research
Four sources, each checked.
Last reviewed
Finucane, Alhakami, Slovic & Johnson (2000) The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits J. Behavioral Decision Making Read the source Slovic, Finucane, Peters & MacGregor (2007) The affect heuristic European J. Operational Research Read the source Efendić, Chandrashekar, Lee, Yeung, Kim, Lee & Feldman (2022)Replication Risky Therefore Not Beneficial: Replication and Extension of Finucane et al.'s (2000) Affect Heuristic Experiment Social Psychological & Personality Science Read the source King & Slovic (2014) The affect heuristic in early judgments of product innovations J. Consumer Behaviour Read the source
Before you use it · UK law
Do not use emotive framing to play down genuine product risks or safety information; marketing must not materially mislead.
This is simply a pointer to check, not legal advice. Seek legal advice before you put this principle into action.