Anchor-Based Storytelling: A COVID-19 Demonstration

One of the consistently shocking things about the COVID-19 pandemic has been infection and death rates rising day after day. In the early days of the pandemic, I tracked the numbers on a weekly basis and reported coronavirus infection penetration rates (CIPR) to a small group of people. Essentially, CIPR is a measure of confirmed COVID-19 cases for an area divided by population estimates. Mere infection and death counts are telling while CIPR figures tell an even more robust story.

Naturally, the United States showed very concerning figures throughout. Worldwide news coverage along with doctors and other analytics professionals shined the necessary light on the pandemic rendering my analytic interpretations a bit redundant. I never found someone interpreting the situation quite in terms of something like CIPR, but I did find incident rates per 100,000 people. I eventually stopped reporting these figures.

My attention turned toward personally understanding the gravity and extent of the situation. Anchor-based storytelling helped me to do this.

Anchor-Based Storytelling Defined

Anchoring is a psychology concept involving the use of something familiar that results in influencing perception and decision-making. Numbers are often a familiar anchor that people use although qualitative elements can also be used. Haggling is a great example of two separate anchors being created by two separate people. As a shop attendant sees a shopper viewing and feeling a rug, they may offer a price. That price is meant to be a price anchor to the shopper. Meanwhile, upon hearing the price, the shopper may make a face demonstrating disapproval and begin to walk away. Those nonverbal responses are qualitative interest anchors to the shop attendant. From there, the dance of haggling can begin although studies indicate that the first move by the attendant serves as the stronger anchor, influencing the proceedings the most. We see similar anchoring behaviors during vehicle purchases and garage sales.

Haggling, vehicle purchases, and garage sales can all have very quantitative facets due to the involvement of money. In contrast, anchor-based storytelling involves using a familiar point of comparison to frame a qualitative topic early in a discussion. To be effective, the anchor needs to be readily understood by the audience. Spending time understanding the audience, their worldview, their knowledge, and their experiences is critical to success. (Not that this work isn’t important anyway, but a story anchor will definitely not work well if you don’t invest in some thoughtful consideration!)

Anchor-Based Storytelling in COVID-19

We’ve seen a lot of qualitative anchoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The term “anti-maskers” anchored people in terms meant to shame lack of participation in wearing masks. Operation Warp Speed served as an anchor for the Trump Administration to demonstrate how fast creating a vaccine would happen. Evidencing the need to consider the audience, Operation Warp Speed also served as an anchor for people suspicious of how fast medical advancements can be developed. Clearly, anchoring worked well during the pandemic to further contribute to a dramatic political polarization of U.S. citizens. Let’s look at a non-political COVID-19 anchor to help tell the story of the pandemic:

Those are really large figures. In fact, they can be difficult to comprehend until put in terms that people better understand–city and region populations. Watch the change as we add a qualitative anchor to better explain these figures:

In this example, anchor-based storytelling uses the world’s largest city and a world nation as anchors to help the listener better relate to the figures cited. If speaking to Americans, an even better anchor would entail using New York City (more than 6 New York City’s). If speaking to people living in Atlanta, a better anchor would entail using the local metropolitan statistical area (more than 19 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta MSAs). Or even better, for American citizens, start completely on home turf:

See the difference? Close to a reader’s heart (national pride), mirroring lived experience (geographic familiarity), and carried throughout the narrative, this example is more likely to resonate with Americans in the intended manner. It’s also been my anchor in conceptualizing magnitude throughout the course of this pandemic.

Appropriate Usage & Conclusion

People make judgments and decisions through comparison. The power of a person’s anchor-based storytelling resides in that knowledge combined with audience knowledge. It’s interesting to note that everyone, regardless of anchoring awareness, is under anchoring influence as well. Reviewing prices at the grocery store? Anchoring. Negotiating salary with a potential employer? Anchoring. Listening to a lawyer as a jury member? Anchoring. Attending a political rally? Anchoring.

And that anchoring works. Studies show that even though a person may have a reduced impact from awareness, it is exceptionally difficult to completely avoid the impact. That makes it really important to use anchor-based storytelling for good, altruistic means. The opposite side can be dangerous. As in Nazi propaganda dangerous. But you wouldn’t go in that direction.

See what I did there? Anchoring.