How To Get Someone To Change Their Mind, According To Neuroscientist Tali Sharot

Getting someone to change their mind is a milestone of varying difficulty, a purpose conditional on various circumstances. As a rule, we usually pass a critical filter to an idea before adopting it as our own . However, once this first filter is overcome, it is not easy for us to question it again.

Neuroscientist Tali Sharot, author of The Influential Mind , has studied this phenomenon in detail. His attraction to the subject was born from a simple fact: getting someone to change their mind, even if the new evidence goes in this direction, is not an easy milestone to achieve.

Sharot was struck by our ability to discard evidence that contradicts our beliefs. Consciously or unconsciously, we are able to close our minds and refuse to see reality  from another perspective . So how do you get someone to change their mind? We will talk about that.

The stubborn brain

The human brain loves novelty, but it also resists change. Although he likes to pry and discover, he also understands that mutating the schemes he works with requires an investment of energy. Therefore, you usually put a lot of requirements to make these variations.

When new information appears, but valid and well argued, we usually receive it well. The problem appears when that new information contradicts the construction of some of our schematics . In other words, any novelty is assimilated very well, as long as it does not put into question previous knowledge or beliefs.

In principle, this would seem like a “design error”. However, it is more of a preservation mechanism and a means of saving energy. The available data indicate that the brain rejects or filters everything that is an invitation to change its way of proceeding.

The brain is not good at dealing with uncertainty. If that new idea generates a lot, a common attitude is to protect ourselves. Sometimes we prefer to think that we are still on solid ground, even though we are surrounded by water on a swaying platform. In fact, Tali Sharot proved it with some experiments.

Tali Sharot’s experiments

Tali Sharot and some of her colleagues conducted a study to establish how they work and how a person’s opinions change. Within it they carried out several tests and a simple experiment. This consisted of asking several people to calculate the price of a house and say how confident they were of their opinion.

Likewise, the volunteers had to make a bet for their opinion, which ranged from 0 to 60 cents. They were then allowed to observe what other of their teammates had scored and were given the opportunity to change their bet. What happened was that if another volunteer had a similar figure to what each one had calculated, they raised the bet.

On the other hand, if another participant had a very different figure, it was hardly taken into account. It didn’t matter if that person had written down that they were very sure of their calculation and placed a high bet. If he contradicted his own opinion, in general terms, he was not taken into account.

Get someone to change their mind

The above and other studies show that it is very difficult to get someone to change their mind, even if the person has solid evidence of their error. It has also been proven that when a person hears opinions different from their own, they can suffer a kind of desensitization .

So how do you get someone to change their mind? According to Dr. Tali Sharot, the first thing to do is make arguments that are on common ground. Something like finding the points of agreement to prevent the other’s brain from shutting down and becoming numb.

We not only believe what we think is true, but also what we want to believe. To get someone to change their mind, it is important to attend to that desire and not discredit it. Likewise, you have to take into account previous fears and beliefs.

An example

An example of the process to get someone to change their mind could follow the following scheme: you believe that there is a great conspiracy, and I also think that there are unclear interests motivating some of the measures that affect us, but I do not believe that there is a plot as such. We both think that behind there are powerful groups; We both know that there is information to which we do not have access.

I’m as scared as you are of this happening. The difference between your opinion and mine is that, in my opinion, there are also people like you or me who resist getting on their knees. The most committed have created very serious organizations to publicize the excesses or abuses of powerful groups.

I believe in the information these organizations produce, as they have been doing it for many years and have shown that they can be trusted as a source. Why do you believe only in anonymous sources?