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| Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mftKB1Mwc2Q/TDQImI3ui9I/AAAAAAAABeU/eVL_osIPPXE/s400/surprise+face.jpg |
The reasoning behind this effectiveness is relatively simple. When people are surprised, patterns are broken. "Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Consistent sensory stimulation makes us tune out." There might even be a biological (or evolutionary) basis behind why surprising things and pattern-breakers grab our attention. When there is something new or unexpected in our environment, we are jolted into action and our attention is focused. Our goal at this point is to understand why we were surprised and as a result, we start paying attention. By paying attention and thinking about what surprised us, we are much more likely to commit ideas into our long-term memories. We are now more invested in the problem than before and are actively seeking to solve it instead of being passive participants.
However, the only goal isn't to simply go for surprise. The surprise or unexpectedness must be followed by the insight that you are trying to get at. I know that this is getting redundant but I enjoy examples using environmental behavior so I am going to continue with that theme. For instance, if your goal is to urge people to conserve water, you could first surprise them with an unexpected statistic and then once you have their attention, you can continue on with your insight on why they should be saving water. You could craft a message such as: "Each additional minute of showering could provide enough drinking water for 10 people for a whole day. Think twice about how long your showers need to be." In this example, the surprising statistic is supposed to be how much water is used up every minute and the insight is to urge people to conserve.
A personal favorite example of mine deals with grass lawns. Apparently, lawns were used by royalty in 17th Century England to display wealth. "Only the rich could afford to hire the many hands needed to scythe and weed the grass, so a lawn was a mark of wealth and status." Additionally, a lawn was used to show that the individual (or family) was rich enough to essentially waste agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. After I heard about this surprising origin of lawns, the information stuck in my head and it made me even more likely to support native vegetation and gardens instead of grass lawns.
A little bit'o surprise can go a loooooooooooong way in making your ideas memorable...
Quote sources:
http://www.heathbrothers.com/madetostick/
http://www.organiclawncare101.com/history.html
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Hark Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the Sea King rise from the depths full foul in his fury! Black waves teeming with salt foam to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye, engorging your organs til' ye turn blue and bloated with bilge and brine and can scream no more - only when he, crowned in cockle shells with slitherin' tentacle tail and steaming beard take up his fell be-finned arm, his coral-tine trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest and plunges right through yer gullet, bursting ye - a bulging bladder no more, but a blasted bloody film now and nothing for the harpies and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the Dread Emperor himself - forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god or devil, forgotten even to the sea, for any stuff for part of Winslow, even any scantling of your soul is Winslow no more, but is now itself the sea!