The research, plainly
Small and Loewenstein showed donors giving significantly more to a single identified person than to equivalent statistical need — and follow-up work found that adding statistics to the story actually reduced giving. Emotion flows to the one; arithmetic stops it.
The receipt: Small & Loewenstein, 2003
What it means for events
Lead with the one. One patient, one customer, one rep — named, present, specific. The data can hold the case together, but the person is what moves the room. Sequence matters: story first, statistics as backup, never the reverse.
Where to run it
Customer stories
Put the customer on stage, by name, telling their own before-and-after. The case-study slide can't compete with the case study standing there.
Cause events
One beneficiary's story, told fully, out-raises the impact dashboard every time — the galas that work already know.
Internal change
'Here's what the old process did to Maria's Tuesday' beats the efficiency metrics that say the same thing.
Seen in the wild
Related concepts
Now use it
Score your own event against principles like this one — or make the whole vocabulary official.
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