When I was an employee union organizer a million years ago, I was taught that there are two kinds of belief systems.
One is rational/intellectual. If you provide the proof and facts, then you can change the mind of a person like this.
The other kind of belief system is simply belief - not based on facts, just based on what a person “believes” in their heart to be true because of how they were raised, or taught, or just want to believe. This is the tough one - you have to grab people like this by the heart in order to change their minds. It hard because it upends their entire belief system, and they don’t necessarily want that to change.
Persuasion is very tricky, and requires a lot of listening and appealing to other parts of their belief system (love, faith, and other non-rational beliefs that guard their mind from change.)
I also did some organizing for my union. I found that often if I just listened and made an occasional comment the person realized on their own that the union was beneficial to them.
ReplyDeleteWise approach!
DeleteAgreed.
DeleteHave you read Thinking, Fast and Slow? Its two system thesis seems quite relevant to your thoughts here.
ReplyDeleteWill check it out!
DeleteI think some "beliefs" simply can't be changed by an external argument. People need to change their own minds, and that can take a long, long time because they must admit that their initial beliefs were incorrect. (Or that they were duped.)
ReplyDeleteThat's especially true in this current political climate.
DeleteChanging someone's belief when that belief isn't based on facts but on some kind of psychological motive is very hard. Usually I don't even try to change their mind because they will simply double down.
ReplyDeleteIt is often a waste of time.
DeleteI have read some interesting articles about why folks stick with Trump even though he does things they would ordinarily find abhorrent. The psychology is frankly beyond me. But I suppose I am the same - no matter the MAGA arguments, I will never see it their way.
ReplyDeleteI like to think my political decisions are based on facts, but they also involve my "sense" of right versus wrong.
DeleteBeliefs are not based on facts, you said it. It's why it's so hard to change someone's mind.
ReplyDeleteClosed minds, closed hearts - difficult to reach.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with your analysis. And I wonder if a committed trumper would say the same thing about us? That the MAGA way is logically better and we, the antitrumpers, are locked into wrong thinking because we were raised that way, taught to be liberal crazies. It’s all very baffling and would be interesting if it weren’t so frightening.
ReplyDelete