The Role of Vivid Imagery and Concrete Verbal Information in Omission Detection and Persuasion

Research on omission neglect has demonstrated that consumers are insensitive to many different types of missing, unmentioned, and unknown information. However, there is no prior research examining the role that vividness plays in omission detection and persuasion. The present research distinguishes between vividness in imagery and vividness of verbal information and shows that vividness in imagery actually undermines persuasion by increasing one’s sensitivity toward missing information, while verbal vividness, reflected in concrete verbal information, increases persuasion. Considered together, the results challenge the prior practice of treating vividness in imagery and verbal information as homogeneous sources of vividness. The results also suggest that vivid imagery may facilitate omission detection.