Deep canvassing, street epistemology, and other tools of persuasion (with David McRaney)
Jun 28, 2023
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David McRaney, a science journalist and author, dives deep into the art of persuasion, contrasting it with coercion. He explores the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the psychological underpinnings of motivated reasoning. McRaney discusses persuasive techniques like deep canvassing and street epistemology, emphasizing empathy and rapport in conversations. The episode raises intriguing questions about belief, evidence, and how our mental frameworks can obstruct acceptance of new ideas. It’s a thought-provoking look at changing minds and navigating biases.
Persuasion involves leading someone to better understand their own thinking and align it with a communicated message.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model helps identify effective techniques for persuasion based on the target's motivations and behavior.
Assimilation and accommodation are processes through which we update our models of reality; accommodation requires adjusting our understanding to accommodate new information.
Effective persuasion techniques involve helping individuals recognize their own motivated reasoning and encouraging metacognition.
Deep dives
What is Persuasion?
Persuasion is not coercion or a debate, but rather a process of leading someone to better understand their own thinking and align it with a communicated message. It focuses on the person's motivations and encourages them to realize that change is possible.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) explains how individuals process persuasive messages. When elaboration likelihood is high, people pay attention to the merits of the argument, and when it is low, they focus on peripheral cues. The model helps identify the most effective techniques for persuasion based on the target's motivations and behavior.
Assimilation and Accommodation
Assimilation and accommodation are processes through which we update our models of reality. Assimilation involves fitting new information into existing categories and understanding, while accommodation requires adjusting our understanding to accommodate new and unfamiliar information. Accommodation is more difficult and less common as we tend to favor assimilation, but certain factors such as motivation and ability can influence the likelihood of accommodation.
Motivated Reasoning and Confabulation
Motivated reasoning refers to our tendency to come up with reasons to justify and rationalize our beliefs, decisions, and attitudes. We are often unaware of our true motivations and may confabulate explanations that coincide with our desired outcomes or social identity. Effective persuasion techniques involve helping individuals recognize their own motivated reasoning and encouraging metacognition.
The Effective Tipping Point
The effective tipping point is the threshold at which individuals can no longer justify ignoring a significant amount of counter-evidence. Research suggests that when around 30% of incoming information contradicts their current beliefs or attitudes, people are more likely to engage in active learning and update their understanding. However, this tipping point may vary depending on the topic and individuals' motivations.
Practical Techniques for Persuasion
While the podcast did not explicitly mention specific practical techniques, it highlighted the importance of understanding and addressing individuals' motivations, using the Elaboration Likelihood Model to tailor persuasive messages, encouraging metacognition to examine biased reasoning, and recognizing the effective tipping point to foster active learning and belief update.
The power of changing minds
The podcast episode delves into the process of how people change their minds and explores techniques used to facilitate mindset shifts. It begins by discussing the shift in societal attitudes towards topics such as same-sex marriage and smoking norms. The episode introduces various techniques, such as the elaboration likelihood model, street epistemology, deep canvassing, and motivational interviewing, which have all independently discovered the same principles of changing minds. These techniques emphasize engaging in a conversational context that allows individuals to generate counterarguments to their own positions, leading to introspection and cognitive dissonance. The importance of establishing rapport and a shared goal of pursuing truth or reducing harm is highlighted in ethical persuasion.
The art of persuasion and ethical considerations
In this section, the podcast delves into the ethics of persuasion and emphasizes the importance of understanding personal motivations for wanting to change someone's mind. The conversation stresses the need for consent and the acknowledgement that both parties have limited perspectives and experiences. It is crucial to approach persuasion with an open mind, recognizing the possibility of being wrong and valuing the collaborative pursuit of truth. The episode distinguishes between fact-based issues, where critical thinking and trust in experts are essential, and political or moral issues, where shared values and a commitment to reducing harm form the basis of ethical persuasion. The episode concludes by cautioning against unethical uses of persuasion techniques and emphasizing the significance of honest self-reflection.
What is persuasion, and what is it not? How does persuasion differ from coercion? What is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion? How are the concepts of assimilation and accommodation related to persuasion? Motivated reasoning is usually seen as a cognitive bias or error; but what if all reasoning is motivated? Are we motivated more by physical death or social death? How much evidence would Flat-Earthers need in order to be convinced that Earth is round? What are "deep" canvassing and "street" epistemology? In what contexts are they most effective? Under what conditions is persuasion morally acceptable?
David McRaney is a science journalist fascinated with brains, minds, and culture. He created the podcast You Are Not So Smart based on his 2009 internationally bestselling book of the same name and its followup, You Are Now Less Dumb. Before that, he cut his teeth as a newspaper reporter covering Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and in the Pine Belt region of the Deep South. Later, he covered things like who tests rockets for NASA, what it is like to run a halfway home for homeless people who are HIV-positive, and how a family sent their kids to college by making and selling knives. Since then, he has been an editor, photographer, voiceover artist, television host, journalism teacher, lecturer, and tornado survivor. Most recently, after finishing his latest book, How Minds Change, he wrote, produced, and recorded a six-hour audio documentary exploring the history of the idea and the word: genius. Learn more about him at davidmcraney.com, or follow him on Twitter at @davidmcraney.
