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Are people persuadable?

February 9, 2017 by Nathan Bransford

One of the things I’ve found fascinating throughout the election and beyond, is the extent to which people are, or aren’t persuadable.

  • Is there really such a thing as a swing voter? 
  • What makes people change their minds?
  • What are the lines in the sand that trigger reversals of opinion?
  • When we sit around talking about politics with people who disagree with us, are we just wasting our time?

In the aftermath of the election, few things have felt more urgent to liberals than to understand why people voted as they did and the need to try to persuade the persuadable.

But is this a lost cause?

Quartz recently published an article on the scientific! proven! way to have conversations across party lines. And then an article in The Atlantic posited that instead of being all conversational maybe you really should just call people racist.

Color me a bit skeptical that there’s a formula to persuasion. When people are confronted with information that runs counter to their pre-conceived ideas, don’t most people tend to double-down? Don’t most people decide first with their gut and then back into the evidence?

But people do change their mind, don’t they? What happens when they do?

Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: Politics, You Tell Me

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nathan Bransford says

    February 14, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    anon, I already am a farmer!

  2. Ti says

    February 23, 2017 at 1:25 am

    @Anon 2/14 12:26, et al–

    -Disclaimer: I'm a liberal. That said, I don't think threatening to "unfriend" or "unfollow" qualifies as bullying.

    -Concerning friendship, everyone has deal breakers. For many, electing a monster is one of them. I've been around the internet since Trump was elected, and I've heard every argument out there as to why conservatives voted for him. I listened; I really did. But at the end of the day, the reasons weren't good enough. The reasons were hypocritical, or based on ignorance, or rooted in bigotry. I can almost forgive the people who were merely ignorant. But is that really an adequate defense? Isn't our first duty as citizens to be informed? Regardless, I feel no compunction to be "friends" with such people, and this attitude hardly amounts to "abuse." (Especially where the sentiment is mutual.)

    -There is a certain irony in conservatives complaining about online harassment/abuse/bullying, given that until now they have been the sole perpetrators of said abuse and have been extremely outspoken in voicing their contempt for "safe spaces," "political correctness," and, of all things, "feelings." Not to say that two wrongs make a right, but again, the hypocrisy is staggering. The demand that liberals show forbearance in the face of such hypocrisy (which is ongoing in the wake of an alarming spike in hate crimes) and such naked self-interest is incredibly brazen. I don't speak for every liberal, but I am personally of the camp that you have to give respect to get respect. Pretty simple.

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Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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