LYRICFLUENT
LYRICFLUENTHow Can You Change Someone's Mind? Lyrics by Addison Anderson Addison Anderson
Below, you will find the lyrics for How Can You Change Someone's Mind? by Addison Anderson.
Three people are at a dinner party
Paul, who's married, is looking at Linda
Meanwhile, Linda is looking at John, who's not married
Is someone who's married looking at someone who's not married?
Take a moment to think about it
Most people answer that there's not enough information to tell
And most people are wrong
Linda must be either married or not married
There are no other options
So in either scenario, someone married
Is looking at someone who's not married
When presented with the explanation, most people change their minds
And accept the correct answer
Despite being very confident in their first responses
Now let's look at another case
A 2005 study by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler
Examined American attitudes regarding
The justifications for the Iraq War
Researchers presented participants with a news article
That showed no weapons of mass destruction had been found
Yet many participants not only continued to believe
That WMDs had been found
But they even became more convinced of their original views
So why do arguments change people's minds in some cases
And backfire in others?
Arguments are more convincing when they rest
On a good knowledge of the audience
Taking into account what the audience believes
Who they trust
And what they value
Mathematical and logical arguments like the dinner party
Brainteaser work
Because even when people reach different conclusions
They're starting from the same set of shared beliefs
In 1931, a young, unknown mathematician
Named Kurt Gödel presented a proof
That a logically complete system of mathematics was impossible
Despite upending decades of work by brilliant mathematicians
Like Bertrand Russell and David Hilbert
The proof was accepted
Because it relied on axioms that everyone
In the field already agreed on
Of course, many disagreements involve different beliefs
That can't simply be reconciled through logic
When these beliefs involve outside information
The issue often comes down to what sources
And authorities people trust
One study asked people to estimate several statistics
Related to the scope of climate change
Participants were asked questions
Such as 'how many of the years between 1995 and 2006
Were one of the hottest 12 years since 1850?'
After providing their answers
They were presented with data from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
In this case showing that the answer was 11 of the 12 years
Being provided with these reliable statistics
From a trusted official source
Made people more likely to accept the reality
That the earth is warming
Finally, for disagreements that can't be definitively settled
With statistics or evidence
Making a convincing argument
May depend on engaging the audience's values
For example, researchers have conducted a number of studies
Where they've asked people of different political backgrounds
To rank their values
Liberals in these studies, on average, rank fairness
Here meaning whether everyone is treated
In the same way above loyalty
In later studies, researchers attempted to convince liberals
To support military spending with a variety of arguments
Arguments based on fairness
Like that the military provides employment
And education to people from disadvantaged backgrounds
Were more convincing than arguments based on loyalty
Such as that the military unifies a nation
These three elements
Beliefs, trusted sources, and values
May seem like a simple formula for finding agreement and consensus
The problem is that our initial inclination is to think of arguments
That rely on our own beliefs, trusted sources, and values
And even when we don't
It can be challenging to correctly identify what's held dear
By people who don't already agree with us
The best way to find out is simply to talk to them
In the course of discussion
You'll be exposed to counter-arguments and rebuttals
These can help you make your own arguments
And reasoning more convincing
And sometimes, you may even end up being
The one changing your mind
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