The speed of change is inversely proportional to the strength of our certainty, and certainty is a feeling: somewhere between an emotion and a mood, more akin to hunger than to logic. To believe or doubt is the result of neurons in associative networks delivering an emergent sensation of certainty, or lack thereof. Certainty is an emotion.īeliefs aren’t ideas stored in your brain, possessions on a shelf, or files in a biological computer. By focusing on these factors, an argument becomes more likely to change minds. People change (or refuse to do so) based on their desires, motivations, and internal counterarguing. Ultimately, all persuasion is self-persuasion. In many ways, persuasion is mostly encouraging people to realize that change is possible. You can’t persuade another person to change their mind if that person doesn’t want to do so, and the techniques that work the best focus on a person’s motivations more than their conclusions. Persuasion is leading a person along in stages, helping them to better understand their own thinking and how it could align with the message at hand. It is also not an attempt to defeat your intellectual opponent with facts or moral superiority, nor is it a debate with a winner or a loser. Listen to the audio version-read by David himself-in the Next Big Idea App. Below, he shares 5 key insights from his new book, How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. David McRaney is a science journalist, author, and host of the You Are Not So Smart podcast.
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