Why Using Statistics Doesn’t Work

Have you ever pretended to feel a certain way because you know it was expected of you?

I remember watching videos where they had crazy statistics… maybe it was about the number of women that were sex trafficked in the world… I would sit there watching and thinking:

“Wow, that’s a HUUUUGE number. And I know I’m supposed to feel really bad about this, but I’m having a hard time feeling anything.”

Has that ever happened to you?

I would sit there and try to understand and wrap my head around the immense number that meant some really bad things were happening to people. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t picture that number of people, and I almost felt guilty for not feeling sad enough…

NOW I KNOW WHY IT DIDN’T WORK.

This is something that came up during my conversation with Zach on his podcast (if you haven’t heard it, you can listen to it HERE.)

Zach had asked me to share some tips with the listeners to apply in their stories.

Here is one that I shared:

PEOPLE CAN’T CONNECT WITH NUMBERS

PEOPLE CONNECT WITH PEOPLE

What I’m talking about here is the habit of using numbers or statistics to shock or convince your audience to feel a certain way. This is used a lot in nonprofits especially, maybe even you’ve done it. It goes something like this:

“5.6 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday”

“More than 20 million people are trafficked worldwide”

“1 in 10 people lack access to clean water”

Woah. Those are truly scary and sad statistics, but will you remember those numbers tomorrow? I certainly won’t, I just will have this “it’s really bad” feeling about it.

And the reason it doesn’t stick is because people don’t and can’t connect with numbers. They’re just numbers, how can we emotionally connect to a few numbers on a screen? We can’t.

But we CAN connect with people.

What if I told you a story about one of those 20 million people that are trafficked?

Her name is Amy, and she comes from a poor farming family in Nigeria. She was offered a nanny job in Europe that paid well and she accepted without knowing it was a trick to force her into prostitution. After a harrowing journey that involved crossing the desert with barely any food or water and barely surviving the boat ride across the Mediterranean, Amy arrives in Europe ready to be a “nanny." But she soon is told that she’s going to be forced into prostitution instead. With threats on her and her family’s lives, she has no choice but to succumb to her new abusive life. Thankfully her story doesn’t end there, because she was rescued out of that life and gave her heart to Christ. She went through a lot of healing and restoration and now is working to help other girls that have also been forced into sex trafficking. Her life story is a testament to God’s goodness and sovereignty!

That’s a true story (with names changed.) When you can connect with a character on an emotional level, when you can picture their face and they represent one of those crazy statistics, it’s so much more powerful.

When we focus on telling the story of a specific person, then we can connect with them emotionally and on a deeper level- and that STICKS. We can easily remember stories that we’ve connected with. But we can’t easily remember numbers.

So instead of leading with statistics, lead with a specific story, then you can zoom out and say “ Amy is only one out of thousands of girls in Europe who are still being tricked and forced into prostitution.”

BOOM.

See how that’s so much more powerful? Because that number now is tied to the story of Amy, who we’ve felt an emotional connection to. Now when we hear the 20 million people being trafficked worldwide, we can picture Amy and remember her story, and then think “wow, there’s 20 million other Amy’s out there…”

The tip above is written as more of a truth. So here’s the actionable tip:

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC PEOPLE, NOT ON NUMBERS OR STATS.

And then watch how much more engagement you get from your stories! Watch your audience be truly impacted and start sharing that story with everyone they know…

That’s the power of story!

You got this.