Nuclear weapons are not sticky

The pop psychology book Made to Stick argues that in general we fail to communicate messages effectively, they do not stick, they are not "sticky." This is unfortunate given how hard we try to get our point across. Ultimately, the book shows us that vague corporate language (think mission statements) doesn't cut it. Instead, using surprising, concrete examples and anecdotes will allow us to convey messages that will stick with people long after we've shared them.

The book provides the example of movie popcorn. A researcher, attempting to demonstrate just how unhealthy movie theater popcorn was (back when they used coconut oil), decided to make his message "sticky." Instead of lamenting the fact that the popcorn boasted 37 grams of saturated fat (about twice the daily recommended value), he invoked a more appalling reaction. Consumers did not inherently know if 37 grams of saturated fat was bad, the message had to be communicated with more than just the facts. At a press conference presenting his findings, this researcher and his team displayed the medium-sized bag of popcorn on one side of a table and a bacon and egg breakfast, a Big Mac and fries, and a steak dinner on the other. The popcorn had more fat than the other side of the table combined. This message was enough to get the nation's major theaters off of coconut oil.

As you may have guessed from an earlier post, nonproliferation is a particular passion of mine. Yet, I can see that nuclear weapons are not sticky. We all know that as of now, the world could be destroyed many times over with the amount of weapons present in the world's arsenal. Terrifying as it is, it is too big a concept to fully comprehend. It is like saying that movie popcorn has twice the amount of fat you should eat in a day, let alone one snack. We hear this and know it is "bad" but the argument isn't grounded in reality. Brookings lists some interesting facts about nuclear weapons, but given the scale of the numbers, it is more likely our eyes glaze over than we are swept up in a call to arms (pun not intended). What the nonproliferation community needs is a popcorn display. Some kind of message that conveys just how threatening nuclear weapons are to the world but on a personal, visceral level.

Made to Stick also cites the problem of nuclear weapons as a particularly hard message to convey. "How do you make clear to people the staggering destructive capability of the world's nuclear stockpile? It's so intangible, so invisible." One solution was a demonstration, in which a representative from the group Beyond War would drop a BB into a bucket. The one BB represented the Hiroshima bomb. He would then drop 5,000 BB's into the bucket representing the world's nuclear arsenal. This had both a strong visual and audio effect.

Perhaps an image of a large glass bucket with one small BB in it would be enough to evoke some sort of emotional response. Maybe it's sticky. Regardless, it is clear that despite the grave security threat posed by nuclear weapons both existing and in development, there is less movement on the issue than I would like. Effective messaging can change that.