The other day i listened to a radio interview about a study that seems dispiriting but which matches up with my observations of late. http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2960916.htm
That you can put totally perfect evidence on a platter literally under someone’s very nose and many will still disbelieve it if it doesn’t match what they already believe. Here’s the crux of the matter:
JASON REIFLER: Well we’re certainly susceptible to misinformation in that once we believe something that is wrong then it’s really difficult to correct people.
ELEANOR HALL: So we know that our ignorance about certain issues makes it easy for us to be misled but your research shows that we don’t necessarily change our minds even when we have the facts.
JASON REIFLER: Exactly. And it also shows that there’s an important difference between simply being ignorant and being misinformed, that is, believing that you know something but in fact being wrong.
And what we found is that in trying to correct people there are a number of defences that citizens might be able to bring to bear.
ELEANOR HALL: Your research looked at what you call the back-fire effect in relation to the Iraq War. What did you find?
JASON REIFLER: When we told people that the United States had not found weapons of mass destruction, conservatives, compared to conservatives that we didn’t correct actually believed more strongly that the US had found weapons of mass destruction.
So that by telling them that in fact the US didn’t and pointing to a CIA report known as the Duelfer report citizens actually, their response was, well actually now I believe it more strongly.
ELEANOR HALL: So not only did they not believe the facts that you were putting before them; they actually reinforced the incorrect views they originally had.
JASON REIFLER: Exactly.
ELEANOR HALL: So how do you explain that? Why do people become even more certain in their misperceptions?
JASON REIFLER: When you believe something about the political world or even about the non-political world and it’s really important to you, when you’re told that you’re wrong that can be a pretty threatening experience.
People don’t like being wrong. They have trouble adjusting to it and incorporating new information.
So taking all that in can we still change people’s minds? Why yes, it’s been done before. So it is possible. So what is it we need? What are we doing wrong?
I think the problem is we have been using reasoned, logical nueanced fact-based arguments. Just the sort of thing that reasoned people use to change their views, and i think we’ve won over all of them already. And that’s the problem. We haven’t reached a lot of others because thats not how they change their minds.
We need sound-bites, we need memes, we need emotive arguments, we need rhetoric, we need ways that say why people should support our equal rights that aim right at their most treasured pre-existing values and put their own beliefs into direct conflict with one another and force them to convince themselves.
We need to keep it all backed up with facts still, unlike those who use rhetoric against us, and how potent a tool it has been forthem that despite a mountain of evidence on our side we still get faced with the same empty lies over and over again. And when our Rhetoric is bound together with facts it will be far more potent. And it’s time we bring some Judo into this. Forget the ‘masters tools’ argument, it’s rot. We need to use our opponents own size weight and even momentum against them.
They have been falsely claiming the moral high ground, the religious ground, the family values, the personal liberty.. all of these are the opposite. We have the Ethical and Moral high ground, we have the religious liberty argument that is consistent, we have the care for families, we are the ones calling for personal liberty.
It’s time we put the art into our arguments. And speak to the heart of confused people. Show how our claims more closely match their deep-seated beliefs. And our opponents will cruble like ash before the wind when they realise they cannot keep up fighting with well-told lies when we can fight back with well-told truth.
