8.6 The Emotional Payoff Issue

The discussion of “paying attention” in Chapter 4 is based on the idea that audiences engage in that economic transaction as long as it’s worthwhile to them. In terms of emotion, then, you can think about the emotional payoff: what is the positive emotion that makes something worth the time? Horror movies, for instance, aren’t just about horrible feelings like terror and despair — they’re also about the satisfaction of seeing a villain get destroyed, or a survivor escaping danger.

Why do so many people brush their teeth but not floss? Perhaps it’s because brushing produces an emotional payoff (a nice fresh feeling in the mouth), but flossing doesn’t. One activity has an emotional payoff, the other one is something you’re told to do, but that, for most people, doesn’t end with a nice feeling. The discussion of conspiracy theories earlier points to the emotional payoffs of comfort, bonding with others “in the know,” and a feeling of superiority. For any activity that people like to do, there is an emotional boost that comes along with it.

On the other hand, some messages don’t have any emotional payoffs. If someone is told to become more politically aware, they might read a lot about what’s going on in the government, but end up feeling depressed about the corruption and powerless to do anything about it. Where’s the payoff? That’s the challenge of discussions about large-scale problems: how to end on a note other than “there’s nothing you can do.” “Get involved on a local level” may sound like a big commitment, but if it leads to a feeling of progress, that’s better than a hopeless feeling. And the slacktivism mentioned in Chapter 6 may not be the result of laziness: it can be because people feel like there’s nothing else they can do about a warlord in Africa besides sharing a video. Raising awareness may not be enough to solve a problem, but at least it’s something people can feel good about.

Another category of message without an emotional payoff is software updates: “Please stop what you’re doing while a security update is loading, and then … your computer will function exactly the same as it did before.” Cybersecurity people may see the threat that was just averted, but the rest of us just experience the annoyance without seeing any benefit. It’s the same with flu shots: the soreness in your arm is tangible, but the thought that you didn’t get the flu is abstract. Even the emotional relief that comes with avoiding a disaster isn’t there: unless there’s a specific time when you can say “That’s when I would have caught the flu but I didn’t,” there’s nothing for a positive feeling to latch onto, unlike swerving to avoid a tree that’s fallen on a road, or wearing a bulletproof vest that actually stops a bullet. Perhaps that’s why so many vaccination sites give you a lollipop when you finish — at least there’s that!