Explode Engagement In Your Copy with Sentiment Volatility

Evolutionarily, we humans are predisposed to cherish variety. We often get bored of consuming the familiar item repeatedly - the same daily routine, the same food, the same music, or the same gimmick on YouTube. Variety keeps us stimulated and curious. And when we experience variation in our lives – a different painting, a new job, a new dress, a new song – it makes us feel better and more excited.

You can leverage this concept of variation, also known as sentiment volatility, to escalate interest in your content.?

In this post, I'll tell you sentiment volatility's whole story, from soup to nuts.

What Exactly Is Sentiment Volatility?

Sentiment volatility, also called emotional dynamics, is the frequency of fluctuation between positive and negative experiences throughout a content (movie, short story, etc.). For instance, high volatility(as shown in the figure) happens when something good happens to the main character in a story, and low volatility occurs when something wrong happens. When there's a continuous shift (something good, then something bad, then good, then bad,...) occurs in a story, it keeps the audience hooked.

Why Does Sentiment Volatility Matter??

From an evolutionary standpoint, our brains are hardwired to pay attention to emotionally volatile things. This is because emotionally volatile situations are usually more critical and require more attention than emotionally stable ones.?

For example, suppose you're walking through the park, and you see a snake coiled up on the ground. In that case, your brain will automatically flag this as an emotionally volatile situation and cause you to pay more attention to it.?

The same principle applies to content. When people are reading something, and they experience sudden changes in emotions, their brains will pay more attention to what they're reading. This is why stories with high levels of sentiment volatility are more engaging than those without any emotional ups and downs.?

Berger, J., Kim, Y. D., & Meyer, R. in 2021 conducted a research to discover what makes content engaging and how emotional dynamics shape success.?

They discovered that;

The more a story shifts from making you feel positive to making you feel negative to positive, to negative…, the more success it tends to get.

Here’s the mathematical/graphical representation of the shifts in sentiments in an engaging content.

To further provide evidence for this effect, researchers analyzed the transcripts of over 4,000 popular movies from 1981 to 2013 for what similarities they might share.?

They used text analysis algorithms to analyze the scripts for the frequency of the shifts in sentiment volatility occurring within them.

They made an exciting discovery: the movie with more significant sentiment variation (variation of positive and negative experiences) within them had enhanced engagement and more success with the higher IMDB score and box office sales. These include mystery, horror, and fantasy movies.?

The researchers then replicated the effect in online articles, where the more sentiment volatility there was within an article, the more time people spent reading the article.?

How to Use Sentiment Volatility In Your Content?

Let's take a look at how you can leverage emotional dynamics in your content.?

Start with a Bang

The first few sentences of your article are critical for capturing your reader's attention. You want to start off strong by immediately introducing an emotionally volatile situation. This will grab your reader's attention and keep them hooked throughout the rest of the article.?

Use emotional language

Another way to increase sentiment volatility in your content is to use emotional language throughout. This means using words that evoke strong emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, etc. The more emotion you can evoke in your readers, the more engaged they will be with your content.?

Tell a story

Stories naturally have high levels of sentiment volatility because they typically involve characters who go through various emotions as they try to overcome challenges and achieve their goals. By telling stories , you can add intrigue and excitement while also helping your readers connect with your brand on an emotional level.?

Strategically release dopamine to the audience - withhold key bits while telling a story to create suspense and induce build-ups. Just like music - there's a thumping beat, a breakdown, a build-up, a release, another breakdown, an immense build-up, and then a release with many layers of wonder. Focus on the details - the character, the situation, the hook, the punch lines, etc.?

As Ernest Hemingway says,

Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

If you're trying to make it big with your next brand story, screenplay, or any other content, consider adding a little "sentiment volatility" to the narrative.

So that your stories follow a good Nicely-Meanly-Nicely-Meanly-Nicely-Meanly graph.

Reference:

Berger, J., Kim, Y. D., & Meyer, R. (2021). What Makes Content Engaging? How Emotional Dynamics Shape Success. Journal of Consumer Research, 48 (2), p. 235-50.)?