Persuading with facts can be difficult

April 21, 2019

From James Clear on Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds

Leo Tolstoy was even bolder- “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

Many interesting observations in this essay:

We don’t always believe things because they are correct. Sometimes we believe things because they make us look good to the people we care about.

Ben Casnocha mentioned an idea to me that I haven’t been able to shake: The people who are most likely to change our minds are the ones we agree with on 98 percent of topics.

The number of people who believe an idea is directly proportional to the number of times it has been repeated during the last year—even if the idea is false.