What happens when two sides are in disagreement and both think they are right? How do you change a mind? Some tactics can be persuasive, but others can backfire and result in no movement or even extra resistance. There are things that can be learned from these disagreements, and tools that can be used to resolve them.

David McRaney is a journalist, podcaster and author. His latest book is How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion where David explores different methodologies for changing both one’s own mind and the minds of others, exploring what works, what does not, and what was surprising along the way. He is also the author of the books You Are Now Less Dumb, and You Are Not So Smart, which shares that title with his podcast.

David and Greg talk about David’s experiences researching his books and what he found out about changing minds as he was studying how minds change. They talk about experiments with coin flips and card colors where seemingly arbitrary decisions are motivated by unconscious thought processes. They also discuss the social phenomenon of ‘The Dress’ and what science could tell us about people on either side of the color line.

Episode Quotes:

Why do we tend to make decisions that are easier to justify?

22:52: If you deny people the information that they will use to justify their decision, they won't make the decision because they can't. We do not make decisions unless we’re allowed the opportunity to justify them. And the other side of that spectrum is unfortunately, that means we'll also tend to only make the decisions that are easiest to justify, not the ones that are "best" or have the most factual evidence underpinning them.

19:10: When it comes to arguing about facts, figures, politics, hypotheticals, and abstractions, the facts often remain inert. They stay the same, and the reasons don’t change. Your motivation to search for reasons changes.

An important part of how we flow from acting to thinking

21:42: You have people and put them in situations where they have to rationalize and justify their decisions. They will always choose the option that is easiest to justify, and if you deny them the opportunity to justify their decisions, they just stop. They just don't make anything. It's such an important part of how we flow from thinking to acting.

Defining an epiphany

47:58: An epiphany is the moment you realize you have changed your mind. It's not the moment you change your mind. It's the moment you realize you have already changed your mind. And it's a shocking, thrilling, visceral experience. And it needs to be.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

Marshall McLuhan
The Enigma of Reason
The Bruner Postman Experiment
Disagreeing about Crocs and socks: Creating profoundly ambiguous color displays
The Dress

Guest Profile:

His Work:

You Are Not So Smart Podcast
How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion
You Can Beat Your Brain: How to Turn Your Enemies Into Friends, How to Make Better Decisions, and Other Ways to Be Less Dumb
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, an d 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself

233. Changing How You Change Your Mind feat. David McRaney

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc