Facts Don't Change People's Minds. Here's What Does.

[L84Cabo]

If you read nothing else today, read this. It will help both with the way you think and the way you argue.

Facts Don't Change People's Minds. Here's What Does

As a former scientist, I would have cautioned you to rely on objective facts and statistics. Develop a strong case for your side, back it up with hard, cold, irrefutable data, and voila!

Drowning the other person with facts, I assumed, was the best way to prove that global warming is real, the war on drugs has failed, or the current business strategy adopted by your risk-averse boss with zero imagination is not working.

Since then, I've discovered a significant problem with this approach.

It doesn't work.

The mind doesn't follow the facts. Facts, as John Adams put it, are stubborn things, but our minds are even more stubborn. Doubt isn't always resolved in the face of facts for even the most enlightened among us, however credible and convincing those facts might be.

As a result of the well-documented confirmation bias, we tend to undervalue evidence that contradicts our beliefs and overvalue evidence that confirms them. We filter out inconvenient truths and arguments on the opposing side. As a result, our opinions solidify, and it becomes increasingly harder to disrupt established patterns of thinking.

We believe in alternative facts if they support our pre-existing beliefs. Aggressively mediocre corporate executives remain in office because we interpret the evidence to confirm the accuracy of our initial hiring decision. Doctors continue to preach the ills of dietary fat despite emerging research to the contrary.

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[cigars]

When it comes down to the lowest common denominator, people basically only understand two things...money and violence.

 

[DuneHopper]

This will change some minds.

 

[Kruel J]

When it comes down to the lowest common denominator, people basically only understand two things...money and violence.

People are generally just dumb animals that for whatever reason are self aware.

 

[Stomper]

People are irrational because, "muh feelings"...

 

[Dwesson]

People are generally just dumb animals that for whatever reason are self aware.

Most animals are capable of feeding themselves. How many people would starve the moment food stamps stopped getting distributed or the local food mart's shelves went bare?

 

[Flymph]

My GF and I pretty much had this article nailed as soon as we read the title, and we both constantly use these teqhniques.

 

[DuneHopper]

Just look at anifta, they use zero facts and just violence to beat you into understanding what they represent.

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

Life...is supposed to be humbling...

 

[308]

Facts don't always change the human mind, but the correct measure if pain will.

 

[Mister Bisley]

What a waste of time. Succumbing to hubris, especially that of one particular political ideation, isn't going to solve anything. I prefer facts.

 

[surevaliance]

 

[Ownerus]

"It doesn't work" or as I have had to phrase it in the past:
BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK!!

I spent a lot of years in new product design. We would frequently get asked by someone outside the project why we don't design something a particular way. Sometimes "it doesn't work" was the right answer. Occasionally we'd forget to add "we already tried that!"
Sometimes, they'd have to try it themselves because they couldn't overcome their fundamental belief. Of course, it STILL didn't work, they just knew it then.

That's why some understanding of history is important. There's a lot of truth to "nothing new under the sun". This is why the "gun control" argument is so frustrating to me aside from the factor of being punished for crimes I did not commit. Gun bans were tried very effectively for over 5000 years (before they were even invented). 5000 bloody, violent, tyrannical years. Since the advent of individually held firearms, it's been tried again. With the same results in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Cambodia, etc. Still they want to try again. And again.

It's like banning electricity because a few people are electrocuted each year or banning vaccines because a few people have adverse side effects.

To quote Kipling:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;

 

[Flymph]

What a waste of time. Succumbing to hubris, especially that of one particular political ideation, isn't going to solve anything. I prefer facts.

Oh me too, but you have to admit it is a useful tool to manipulate people!

I usually try to avoid that, but it can be fun sometimes.

 

[Alexx1401]

People are irrational because, "muh feelings"...

That there has been the big problem for a long time now. Everything became a matter of "emotion". You see it a LOT with people caught on video acting like they are ready to be put in a padded cell. Worked up to the point of loss of control over emotion. Often over things easily proved wrong. Show them proof and they go off the deep end even more. Some times scary to watch.

 

[Alexx1401]

"It doesn't work" or as I have had to phrase it in the past:
BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK!!

Man is that ever not hitting the nail on the head. When young often I was told something was a poor idea. I knowing everything would do it knowing it would work for me. Of course it did not. Now I usually just smile and drop it when people like my kids will not listen. Figure they will learn. Will Rogers one time said something like Some men learn by reading, some by doing, and some just have to pee on the electric fence a few times.

 

[Alexx1401]

Facts don't always change the human mind, but the correct measure if pain will.

YEP!!!! That I have long thought is one of our big downfalls. We have protected people from pain caused by their poor choices waaaayyyyy too much here. It creates people who never learn. Small example that had my Wife shaking her head. They had to fire a guy, he just refused to come to work regularly. When working he was forever in money trouble since he would burn all his paid days off and start getting short checks. After being fired he asked her if she "knows of a place that will give a loan to someone with credit in the crapper". He said he had tried every place he could find and no one would loan him money. This guy was not trying to be funny. He really did not put together that the solution to not having enough money was to get out of bed and go to work every day. No doubt he was raised where his mistakes did not cause problems for him. Now as an adult he is lost.

 

[Alexx1401]

Most animals are capable of feeding themselves. How many people would starve the moment food stamps stopped getting distributed or the local food mart's shelves went bare?

Yep!! This is what I often try to warn people scares me here. We have created a HUGE population that really believes everything they need to live is given to them. Because they are owed this, it's their right. If this collapses and free money stops? They will become mobs. They have no idea of how to care for themselves and they really believe they should not have to.

 

[albin25]

Facts don't change people's minds,
because people's minds will change facts.


How else could Starbuck's burnt coffee be "expensive coffee", Third World sweatshop sneakers sell for hundreds of $'s (often to descendants of slaves) .... and why else would "vertical stripes fool people into thinking I'm skinny", still be a thing? (I mean really, It's like the mirror was never invented)

 

[2A-Jay]

I have believed that Experience is the best teacher. And it does not have to be Personal experience either. Instruction Manuals (assembly, Maintenance, Operational) are written by people that have that personal experience. We here have at one time sought out the people with personal experience in the firearms field before we had gained enough experience to know what we are doing. Does seeking the experience hurt us? Sometimes yes it does. That is part of the LEARNING EXPERIENCE sometimes and is often the best teacher of what we seek to learn.

If someone tells me I am wrong, my first response is usually "Show me why. If that person is unable to show me what I did or said was wrong, I will do the research to either find out if indeed I am wrong and learn what is right. I have never been afraid to ask questions or ask for help if I am still unsure. I do not always listen to people who tell me I am wrong though. This is because I look at that person with a critical eye and have determined that I would not trust him or her to crack an egg safely.