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Reason…can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and it can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition.
–David Hume, super smart Scottish guy who lived in the 18th century

Business schools have long been dominated by a ridiculous notion called rational choice theory, which is basically the idea that people make their buying decisions by carefully weighing the pros and cons.

It should be readily apparent to anyone who knows any actual humans that rational choice theory is a crock because people aren’t rational. Sometimes we arrive at decisions that are rational, but decision-making is not a rational process.

As copywriter extraordinaire Herschell Gordon Lewis points out: "When emotion and intelligence come into conflict, emotion always wins." According to Lewis, a great way to make your advertising copy a heck of a lot more effective is by replacing intellectual words with emotional words. 

On pages 38-40 of Lewis’ book Direct Mail Copy That Sells, the author graciously supplies a list of emotional v. intellectual words that “show you how easy it is to shift word choice in favor of emotion."

If you’re a copywriter who wants to convince people to buy stuff – which is, of course, your job – get hold of a copy of Direct Mail Copy That Sells, Xerox pages 38-40, and tape it to your refrigerator.

Here are a few examples of what Lewis is talking about:

Emotional word: build
Intellectual word: construct

Emotional word: tired
Intellectual word: fatigued

Emotional word: eat
Intellectual word: dine

Emotional word: smart
Intellectual word: astute

Emotional word: death
Intellectual word: demise

Herschell Gordon Lewis

by Richard W. Bray