In the end, it’s pretty obvious. It’s the secret of the survival of the fittest. It’s how we survived, evolved, and are hard-wired to process visual information as a species.
All life on Earth depends on the senses for survival. Senses and stimulus.
Whether it is an insect that perceives the difference between light and dark or a shark that registers electromagnetic pulses. Senses provide them with essential information to survive as a species.
Also, the human race relies to a large extent on sight. Half of our brain is directly, or indirectly devoted to vision. 70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes. Usually, visual stimuli provide us with essential information about where danger or food can be found. 90% of the information the brain receives is visual.
Blink of an Eye
Even before we could write (or even read ;) we communicated via visual information. Examples have been found on rocks and in caves of more than 40.000 years ago. The first alphabet used ideograms. Even today, we still make a lot of use of images.
We prevent people from drinking bleach by printing a pictogram of a skull on the bottle. And for a reason:
The brain processes visual information 60.000 times faster than text and can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds. Even “processing” images is lightning fast, first impressions are formed in just 50 milliseconds.
So even since the invention of text, visual information is superior. Visual information is absorbed by the brain in a primal, unconscious way. Meaningful images ensure the storage of said information into long-term memory. Even now the Pareto Principle is valid: research shows that people retain 80% of hat they see and only 20% of what they read. Similarly, when reading text, one’s visual brain converts the words into a representative image, either recalling a memory or through imagination. This makes sense because people can remember more than 2000 pictures with at least 90 % accuracy.
Humans Are Visual Creatures
So it will come to no surprise that 65% of the people are visual learners. Relating to the internet, on average, website visitors read only 20% of the text on a page.
Make sure you use these insights to your benefit as well. Start adding visual content to your social media posts or (sales) presentation.
