How to Change People’s Minds

Categories Lessons

With everything happening in the world right now I’ve been thinking a lot about two things:

  1. Why do people believe and think what they do?
  2. How do you change someone’s mind?

So I started watching street epistemology videos and just finished the book The Catalyst as my starting point. The first video I saw on street epistemology was this video. Ty does an incredible job just being curious and never comes off as better/smarter than who he talks with. His breakdown videos are great too because you get to hear what he’s thinking as conversations are going on which helped me a lot.

There are a lot of methods used in the videos but the general theme I see starts with asking a lot more questions than they talk. They’re friendly and never attack the person but do question the reasoning. And lastly, they use external examples a lot like, “If a someone else used this line of reasoning would they be right?”.

Another great piece is here https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe even though apparently there’s some bad science in there [1].

From The Catalyst there’s a good framework to think about when you’re in a conversation.

REDUCE

Reactance: When pushed, people push back. So rather than telling people what to do, or trying to persuade, allow for agency and encourage people to convince themselves.

Endowment: People are attached to the status quo. To ease endowment, surface the costs of inaction and help people realize that doing nothing isn’t as costless as it seems.

Distance: Too far from their starting point, people will disregard. Perspectives that are too far away fall in the region of rejection and get discounted. Shrink the distance, ask for less, and switch the field.

Uncertainty: Seed of doubt slow the winds of change. To get people to un-pause, alleviate uncertainty. Easier to try means more likely to buy.

Corroborating Evidence: Some things need more proof. Find corroborating evidence using multiple sources to help overcome the translation problem.

Some things to help mitigate common barriers:

Reduce reactance:

  • How can you allow agency? Encourage people to chart their path
  • Can you provide a menu? Ask kids whether they want broccoli or chicken first. Guide choices.
  • Can you highlight the gap between attitude and behavior?
  • Rather than going straight for influence, have you started with understanding? Have you found the root? Build trust and use that to drive change.

Ease endowment

  • What is the status quo and what makes it attractive?
  • Are there hidden costs of sticking with it that people may not realize?
  • How can you surface cost of inaction?
  • How can you burn ships to make it clear going back is not an option?
  • Can you frame new things as regaining a loss?

Shrink distance

  • How can you avoid the confirmation bias by staying out of the region of rejection?
  • Can you start by asking for less?
  • Can you use someone in the middle to help convince others?
  • Is there a good unsticking point that you can use to switch the field?

Alleviate uncertainty

  • How can you reduce uncertainty and get people to un-pause?
  • Can you lower the barrier to trial?
  • Can you use freemium?
  • How can you reduce up-front costs?
  • Can you drive experience?
  • Can you reduce friction on the back end by making things reversible?

Find corroborating evidence

  • Are you dealing with a pebble or a boulder?
  • How expensive, risky, time-consuming, or controversial is the change?
  • How can you provide more proof?
  • For larger scale, should you use a fire hose or a sprinkler?

Notes from reactance:

  • People strive for internal consistency. What scientists call cognitive dissonance, people take steps to bring things back in line.
  • Seasoned negotiators don’t start with what they want; they start with whom they want to change.
  • People undervalue new things and overvalue what they already have. This includes products and services but also ideas and attitudes.

From endowment:

  • How do we ease endowment
    1. Surface cost of inaction
    2. Burn the ships.
  • Terrible things get replaced but mediocre things stick around. Think about any minor injury.
  • The cost-benefit timing gap stymies action. People are impatient, they want good stuff faster and bad stuff later. By asking to change and incur costs upfront with benefits coming later, it’s likely no action will happen.

Summary

You will never change anyone’s mind. They have to do that themselves. But these will help:

  • Be kind, be a partner, be curious
  • Clarify what they mean, make sure you understand before you talk
  • Ask questions
  • Don’t just list facts, think about the pebble and boulder
  • Use scales – “Out of 100 how confident are you?”
  • Ask “What, if anything, would change your mind?” or things like “So if that study is wrong, you’d be open to changing your mind?”
  • Instill doubt, would a reasonable person come to the same conclusion

Remember to have an open mind and be kind. No one’s mind was ever changed because they were called an idiot.