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While Conceptual Graphics typically use strong visuals to evoke a visceral response, words alone can be used to trigger emotions.
For example, in representing the Plaintiff in an insurance bad faith case, you might explain the purpose of health insurance in generic terms during Opening Statement...
...use Case-in-Chief to establish (through witness testimony and documentary evidence) that the Defendant’s sales brochures made similar promises…
...then pull out the stops in Closing Argument with a Conceptual Graphic that delivers your key case theme with an emotional kicker.
What you have done, strategically, is to:
- Use Opening Statement to exploit commonly held beliefs and trigger juror self-interest; ("Yes, that's why I buy insurance.")
- Introduce documentary evidence within that (now personalized) context; and
- "Seal the deal" in Closing Argument by unleashing jurors’ visceral fears of betrayal and abandonment. ("How would I feel if my insurer did that to my family?")
You have not only framed the key issue to your client’s advantage, you’ve raised the stakes for jurors, forcing them to “put some skin in the game.” Jurors will now be more likely to care about the outcome of the case, and will be much more likely to identify with your client’s plight.
When used in tandem with Conceptual Graphics, Reiterative Graphics can thus function in a conceptual way, both triggering the visceral response and providing the intellectual rationale fact finders need to justify their emotionally-based decisions. The Opening Statement “Reiterative” Graphic in the sample above has done exactly that. It is a Conceptual Graphic masquerading in reiterative form.
Would judges or jurors be as ready to “buy in” to the Plaintiff’s point of view if only Reiterative Graphics were used? Not likely. Information alone rarely prompts a change of heart. Conceptual Graphics exploit a point of view – the viewer’s worldview – providing the emotional “hook” that compels fact finders to vote in your favor and feel good about doing so. They have found validation because you have confirmed what they already “know” or believe.
The strategic use of Reiterative and Conceptual Graphics is at the heart of Conceptual PersuasionSM. To see how it can change minds and hearts and maximize your odds of winning your very next case, Contact Us.
© The Strategic Image 2008
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