Basic psych...

GNN Profile: bengsmack:

"...human beings have a need to know. The Zeigarnik Effect demonstrates that people are motivated by incomplete information. At the next party you’re at, half-way through the party walk past a girl and say to her, “I overheard half of your conversation earlier and I really agreed with what you were saying.” $10 says she’ll break away from that group and come ask you what she said earlier. She’ll be dying to know. If you want to be a jerk, start putting on your coat and tell her you’d love to tell her but you’re running late and to call you.

If I had simply emailed a sentence about incomplete information, you would have dismissed this idea. People are more motivated to learn and remember incomplete information than when something is given to them directly. The process of building suspense, of dividing information, increases the audience’s titillation and makes them more likely to buy or take whatever action they are directed, or at least to give you more of their attention than they would have otherwise. Many times Direct Response advertising will build up a person’s fear, making them feel incomplete and at risk until they purchase what will assay their newfound fear. "