When “Not” is Not Bad: A Re-Evaluation of the Use of Negatives

Abstract

Previous literature has consistently shown that affirmative messages are understood more quickly and accurately than negative messages and that redundancy facilitates comprehension and response selection. However, it was unclear which of these two variables is the most important in the design of system-status messages that must be understood and acted upon. In our experiment, we compared affirmative and negative system-status messages when negative messages contained a word redundant with the appropriate action. The results indicated that affirmative messages were responded to more quickly and more accurately than negative messages only when the negative messages did not contain a redundant word. Redundant negative messages were more accurate than affirmative non-redundant messages.

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