This book is bad news for anyone who thinks we should use facts and evidence to change people’s minds. It is disappointing for lovers of debate. It reveals the psychological and evolutionary reasons why all humans are certain we are right, and why “certainty” is nothing but an illusion. But it’s an optimistic, illuminating and even inspiring read. Because while you can’t talk someone into changing their mind, you just might be able to listen them into it, and David McRaney thinks he can show you how.
McRaney, the bestselling author of You Are Not So Smart, is fascinated by the intersection of brains, minds and culture, and in this book he takes a tour through politics and fashion, social media, psychology and human evolution, to understand “the new science of belief, opinion and persuasion”. He talks to Charlie Veitch, a well-known 9/11 conspiracy theorist who was demonised by his online community after announcing that he had changed his views. He meets young people who have left the extremist Westboro Baptist church, and interviews a psychologist who is so passionate about promoting progressive conversations that she created “an Uncle Bot, a simple AI to stand in for an argumentative relative”. He even holds in his hands The Dress – the one in the viral photo that half of people see as white and gold, half as blue and black – and learns how our brains add information based on past experience to fill in knowledge gaps and convince us that the result is the only possible version of reality.
In one particularly fascinating chapter, McRaney spends time with “deep canvassers” – people who knock door to door, inviting strangers to have scripted conversations that aim to change their political views. The technique evolved in the US on the journey towards acceptance of gay marriage – “the fastest flip of a long-held, nationwide public opinion in recorded history”. Like psychotherapy or coaching, it involves asking people questions about their deeply held beliefs and listening to their replies. It seems devastatingly efficient: quick, permanent and, according to one expert, “102 times more effective than traditional canvassing, television, radio, direct mail, and phone banking combined”. And it is most effective of all when canvassers share their own stories.
The role of storytelling in changing minds is touched on but brushed past frustratingly here. Authors such as Will Storr (who is mentioned in the acknowledgments), in The Science of Storytelling, have examined the ways our brains are wired to respond to narratives. In this study researchers find that “when they employed deep canvassing without sharing their personal narratives, it no longer had any impact”. In any political debate in which two deeply entrenched sides fight to change each other’s minds, you could argue, the side that wins is the one that tells the better story. So it would be fascinating to read more about how stories open up space for empathy and lead to change. Or how that might affect traditional media, with their old-fashioned, one-sided “facts and evidence”, as they compete with new formats built around multi-way conversations and sensational stories.
All this raises challenging questions for the well-meaning reader. In a chapter called “Arguing”, McRaney tells us: “The more intelligent you are, and the more educated, the more data at your disposal, the better you become at rationalising and justifying your existing beliefs and attitudes, regardless of their accuracy or harmfulness.” Once we understand that many of our cherished facts are merely subjective positions, and that people with opposing views might be just as right as we are, even if we can change someone’s mind, should we? McRaney offers practical techniques, but advises using them with extreme caution. First ask yourself: why do I want to change their mind? And am I willing to change mine?
Initially, that seems evasive. How Minds Change makes a grand promise: “You are about to gain a superpower, a step-by-step script of how to change people’s minds on any topic, without coercion, by simply asking the right kind of questions in the right order.” But it ends by casting doubt on whether we should use it – as McRaney himself pulls back from using it, twice, on stage, in mind-changing stunts.
The book is a rousing call to action, an explanation of how societies change their minds in a sudden cascade on subjects such as equal marriage. McRaney talks of generations of campaigners, each hammering away at a crack in the status quo, passing on their hammers to the people after them. The key, he says, “is to never put that hammer down”. But McRaney is also inspiring in his quieter revelations. He points out: “The only way to win a debate is to avoid changing one’s own mind. Only the ‘loser’ of a debate learns anything new, and no one wants to be a loser.” It encourages those of us who think that we’re right to think again, and to listen. As a believer in facts and evidence, a wielder of hammers and a haver of debates, I thought that winning these battles was always the most important thing. I might just have changed my mind.
• How Minds Change: The Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion by David McRaney is published by Oneworld (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
