This seems to be because rhymes are easier to remember and process in the brain. The result of rhyming as a cause is a cognitive bias that makes it easier for people to remember, repeat, and believe statements that contain rhyme, rather than statements that do not rhyme. People tend to accept statements that rhyme truth, rather than statements that express the same meaning but do not rhyme. [Sources: 4, 7, 10]
The effect of rhyme as a cause (or the Eaton-Rosen phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a statement or aphorism is considered more accurate or truthful when rewritten into rhyme. In the experiments, the subjects rated the variants of statements that they rhymed and did not rhyme, and tend to rate those that rhyme as more truthful (tested for meaning). In the first experiment, the influence of rhyme as reason quickly disappeared when people were simply asked to distinguish between the pleasantness of rhyme and the flesh of the actual utterance. Once they knew the rhyme, they stopped automatically associating the sound of a sentence with its truthfulness. [Sources: 0, 1, 9, 11]
“Until we are explicitly aware of it,” McGlone says, “rhyme may even cause us to be more kind to a statement that we would otherwise disagree with.” What is perhaps hidden in the idiom is that rhyme can have the same meaning as reason. Not all aphorisms are rhymes, but evidence suggests that cognitive bias – the effect of rhyme as reason – causes those aphorisms that rhyme to acquire the perceived value of rhyme. [Sources: 0, 10, 16]
The main cognitive mechanism that explains why people perceive the effect of rhyme as a cause is the Keats heuristic, which is a mental label that people use when they base their judgment on whether a statement is true or not, on the aesthetic qualities of that statement. McGlone and Tofigbakhsh attribute this effect to what they call the Keats heuristic [McGlone 1999], with which we humans confuse the validity of a sentence or statement with its aesthetic qualities. Since rhyme is an aesthetic quality, it gives the rhyming sentence great perceived value. There is a reason rhymes are widely used in advertising and branding because rhymes are a key influencer. [Sources: 7, 13, 16]
We see it in action every day: cute rhyming phrases that stay in our brain and influence our behavior. But it wasn’t just repetition that made the phrase “strong and stable” stand out and sticky in people’s minds: it’s the use of consonance and something called the Keats heuristic. They have rhyming consonants at the beginning (hard “st”) – a type of rhyme called consonance. [Sources: 1]
Aphorisms are short and catchy sayings or remarks that we usually accept as true or wise. However, the notorious vagueness of the aphorisms makes it especially difficult to determine the conditions for their truth. If the persuasiveness of an aphorism critically depends on the clarity of the conditions for its truth, then we should find it surprising that people put at least some faith in such statements. Attributing a claim to a highly reliable or prestigious source can lead people to approve of it, especially when they lack the knowledge to assess the underlying claims (Asch, 1952; Saadi and Farnsworth, 1934). [Sources: 8, 16]
Not only is this aphorism familiar to American college students, but these students believe it is a more accurate description of mate choice than new statements that imply the same statement (for example, people with different interests and personalities tend to be attracted to a friend to a friend, McGlone and Necker, 1998). [Sources: 8]
Aphorisms were supposed to be archaic, since people tend to sharply positively react to things familiar to them. We asked people to rate the intelligibility and apparent accuracy of unfamiliar aphorisms presented in their original rhymed form (for example, an investigation into this issue was reported in 2000 by Matthew S. McGlone and Jessica Tofigbakhsh [McGlone 2000], who found that rhyming aphorisms are rated to be more more accurate than their modified, non-rhyming versions. Some of them repeated the use of the term “Eaton-Rosen phenomenon” in their articles, with the result that these sources were added as citations in support of the use of the term, although they were all published later than initial use of the term on Wikipedia. [Sources: 7, 8, 11, 16]
Companies use catchy phrases and rhyming slogans to influence consumers. This messenger effect has been used by marketers for decades and works even at the most basic levels. [Sources: 10, 14]
Likewise, when a commitment is costly and people have problems (such as being arrested), others notice it. Sure, this works great with charity races, but this engaging effect has also been used to protect the environment. Climate protesters have also been severely attacked for having previously resting or using plastic. [Sources: 14]
In contrast, in communities where denial is the norm for one reason or another, the social cost of not being denied is very high. For example, consider the obsolete observation that opposites attract. In conclusion, we can say that rhymes affect human nature. Many sayings and maxims are harmless and can have positive effects. [Sources: 8, 10, 14]
So if you need to convince people to believe something, then you will rhyme your thoughts. Whatever the reason, it seems that if you want people to believe you, use rhyme, but don’t insist. In addition, when using the rhyming effect as a reason, remember that being familiar with a sentence makes it easier for people to remember and believe it. This means that as much as possible and reasonable, repeat the sentence in rhyming form as much as possible in order to increase The possibility of people accepting it. [Sources: 4, 7, 11]
Thus, the nursery rhyme “get up and move” is associated with the severity and completeness of the operation, which in reality may not correspond to the situation. [Sources: 16]
We have concluded that propositional propositions can show whether and to what extent certain features of linguistic structure contribute to poetic effect. In two experiments, we investigated the influence of deviant and parallel linguistic characteristics on the grammatical and literary-aesthetic assessment of the readers of one sentence. We examined the role that poetic form can play in people’s perception of the accuracy of aphorisms as describing human behavior. In Experiment 2, PSAs were rated positively in both the rhymed and non-rhymed versions. [Sources: 2, 3, 5]
However, in some cases, you may want to use additional techniques to reduce the impact of this offset. This thinking error can lead organizations to underestimate data analytics and underestimate the people who perform this function. Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rationality that make us irrational in how we seek, evaluate, interpret, judge, use, and remember information, and in how we make decisions. [Sources: 7, 10, 16]
Rhyme, the basis of musical songs and mischievous limericks, is often not taken seriously. It’s hard to tell right now – it looks like my social media bubble is talking about it, but not always for the right reasons. [Sources: 0, 1]
— Slimane Zouggari
##### Sources #####
[0]: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199809/sounds-true-me
[1]: https://medium.com/@chrislynch_mwm/strong-and-stable-a-lesson-in-the-use-of-consonance-rhyme-as-reason-and-the-keats-heuristic-ba7d2340d863
[2]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23841497/
[3]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X99000030
[4]: https://steemit.com/life/@jevh/17-september-today-s-term-from-psychology-is-rhyme-as-reason-effect
[5]: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9280.00282
[6]: https://hyperleap.com/topic/Rhyme-as-reason_effect
[7]: https://effectiviology.com/rhyme-as-reason/
[8]: https://pdfslide.net/documents/the-keats-heuristic-rhyme-as-reason-in-aphorism-interpretation.html
[9]: https://nlpnotes.com/2014/04/07/rhyme-as-reason-effect/
[10]: https://www.boloji.com/blog/2449/rhyme-as-reason
[11]: https://gizmodo.com/why-rhyming-phrases-are-more-persuasive-1524861998
[12]: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Rhyme-as-reason-in-commercial-and-social-Filkukova-Klempe/022e8b9c5c09d88614758949bc0034e1ad142bbb
[13]: https://eqsales.com.au/blog/rhymeasreason
[14]: http://o-behave.tumblr.com/post/152018329652/bias-of-the-month-rhyme-as-reason-effect
[15]: https://schwa.consulting/rhyme-as-reason-or-why-rhymes-chime
[16]: https://chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/191211.shtml