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Why Facts Don't Convince People (and what you can do about it) | Social Good Now | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Why Facts Don't Convince People (and what you can do about it)
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Core Theme
Human decision-making is primarily driven by emotions and tribal instincts rather than rationality, making it difficult to change beliefs with factual information due to ingrained psychological mechanisms that protect worldviews and identity.
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if you spent any time on earth you might have noticed that humans are not the
most rational creatures we make decisions based mostly on emotions
instead of facts and a lot of times we're guided by tribal instinct part of
the problem is that the human brain evolved to help us survive and not
necessarily to help us be factually accurate so we often respond better to
social and tribal dynamics than to intellectual analysis for example if
someone's tribe believes that Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya that person
probably thinks the hard proof of his us birth certificate is fake that
conclusion is neither rational nor accurate but from a tribal perspective
it makes sense it's safer to agree with your tribe and stay united ideologically
even if you're wrong about the facts than to disagree and isolate yourself
another part of the problem is that our brain is constantly protecting our
worldview and sense of identity so when our worldview is challenged that same
part of the brain that processes physical danger gets activated this is
why people sometimes react so aggressively to information that proves
them wrong and this is why it's often so hard to have an intelligent political
debate several studies have also shown that there is a backfire effect that
happens when people encounter facts that contradict their current beliefs they
actually become more convinced of their original ideas so fighting ignorant with
facts is like fighting a grease fire with water it seems like it should work
but it actually just makes the whole thing work lastly there's the problem of
lack of empathy several studies have found that when humans are divided into
groups of any kind we instinctively become less and pathetic to members of
other groups that means that for survivals sake we men instinctively
empathize less with other races other nationalities and even though their
sports teams this instinctive the humanization of other groups is what
makes things like slavery and genocide possible in our society so what can you
do if you want someone to consider factual information that clashes with
their beliefs first you have to prevent their brain from seeing you as a
personal threat so look for ways to identify the person as part of your
tribe and you as part of theirs hey we're part of the same family hey
we're both parents hey we both still play pokemon go whatever anything that
communicates that you're part of the same
that's the first step second consider the possibility that you may be wrong
maybe the facts are not on your side in which case admitting it will help you
model to the other person that it's okay to be wrong I understand that none of
this is easy or smooth but if we want to continue to function as a stable Society
we have to learn to get past our own natural biases only when that happens we
will be able to move forward towards a better future
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