THE BACKFIRE EFFECT

“Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do something his cleverness forbids” Steinbeck

Episode 4 deals with how to combat the backfire. The key is using empathy to establish human connection first, cf. “seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

It also describes another idea I like: the information deficit model. Most of us imagine we have a killer piece of information, and if we can only communicate this to others, they will instantly say “OMG, you’re right, I’m wrong”.

How often has that happened in your life?