We Need Better Tools Of Persuasion

A couple of years ago a high school friend of mine wrote a short piece for HuffPost about the inequities in our criminal justice system––the very disproportionate percentage of people of color who are in prison compared to their percentage in the general population. The key point of the piece isn't the inequity but our difficulty making white conservatives care about the inequity and the clear injustice. This point is important whether the issue is racial justice or economic or gender or religious justice or issues of basic practicality and survival like climate change and good government.

In his piece Gilliam discussed the problem of persuasion in the area of racial justice. Blacks are far more likely to spend time in prison than whites. Blacks are more likely to be convicted and more likely to receive prison sentences and longer sentences than whites convicted of similar crimes. Sure it’s unfair, but for some reason unfairness isn’t an effective argument against it with people who are not directly affected by the injustice, white people and conservatives. Conservatives are likely to reply that life is unfair. Hearing that far more black men are in prison conforms with the entrenched idea among white people that more black men are in prison because they commit more crimes. Even though they do not commit more crimes. Explaining this does not persuade whites who are inclined to think otherwise.

Unfortunately, some progressives are satisfied with expressing a pure and logically consistent idea regardless of its ineffectiveness, its unpersuasiveness as an argument.

We see these inequities as injustice and wonder how Americans can stand for it––if it is clearly an injustice. It has to do with mindset. The reason may be how it’s framed in arguments and discussions and political discourse. In recent decades white conservatives have done a very effective job of creating white unease over the issue of race and religion and orientation and otherness.

Now psychologists have learned that it is unhelpful to counter those carefully created sentiments (that are cemented daily by FoxNews and talk radio) by explaining they are incorrect or hateful or unChristian, which they are.

It is better to reframe the issue in terms the other side is likely to understand and relate to. We aren’t persuading ourselves here. We are trying to persuade them.

Here are the relevant paragraphs from Franklin Gilliam’s piece at Huffington Post:

"In a series of experiments, [Stanford psychologists Rebecca Hetey and Jennifer Eberhardt] report that, “...exposing people to extreme racial disparities in the prison population heightened their fear of crime and increased acceptance of the very policies that led to those disparities”. Hetey and Eberhardt conclude that “... bombarding the public with images and statistics documenting the plight of minorities” is unlikely to increase support for progressive reform policies."

"We have found that starting a conversation with the American public by essentially claiming the system is racist does, in fact, dampen support for progressive reforms. But, and this is an important finding, our research also shows that starting the conversation with the values that many Americans adhere to, and then pointing out racial disparities, is effective in garnering support for progressive reforms.

"In a recent piece in Slate, Jamelle Bouie argues that, “...advocates might want to try different language (or a different approach) in their campaign to reform the criminal justice system.”

"We believe we have identified a better strategy that allows advocates to both use facts and talk about race. Paying attention to values and order in criminal justice reform communications is an important framework for moving public will."

Which is, essentially, the same argument made in an Atlantic piece this week. The Atlantic also buries the gist in its discussion and supporting information.

The gist is: frame the argument in values which the other side already has, like patriotism and faith, instead of trying to prove they are dead wrong… even if they are.

The article in the Atlantic this week can be read here

We need to integrate these findings into how we work to persuade people. Our scripts need to be less about gratifying our own feelings of righteousness and anger and more directed at changing and shaping opinions that are different from ours.

Being Drunk Makes People Lean Conservative

The GOP’s chief tool is learned helplessness, carefully trained helplessness, leading to hopelessness. Once they have you there they can play on your anger and humiliation like a violin. They’ve been using this tool for several decades, while they’ve gradually stolen the incomes and security of the working classes. They’ve gotten us where they want us.

Here's an article about that from Salon.

From the New Yorker, another interesting psychological study demonstrates that the more drunk people are the more they will bow down to an authoritarian master, more likely to choose conservative over liberal ideas and choices.

Is America drunk––or punch drunk? And who has delivered the beating? We’ve lived through three decades dominated by Big Money and Reaganomics, which were a gift from the GOP. That's what has beaten us down. It's bludgeoned millions of Americans into this submissive mindset. And the irony is they talk and think this way while parroting the lines they've been taught by their masters. Lines like "freedom" when they're not free, and "independence" when their independence has been taken from them.

I've written before about the addled thinking of Trump supporters.

They pray for a leader who will hurt people, because they have been hurt, but they assume this leader will not hurt them.

They pray for a dictator who will do "what needs to be done" but they assume those things that will be done will be things they want done––they assume this dictator will take dictation from them personally. This isn't magical thinking. This is drunk thinking. This is fear talking, too. Scientists have also shown how making people fearful makes them choose conservative options.

There is a psychological difference between conservatives and liberals.

From Scientific American.

From Mother Jones.

Ever wondered who this Mother Jones was that they named a magazine after her? She was a tough old woman who inspired mineworkers to stand up to their bosses and throw off the burden of poor pay, unsafe working conditions, awful living conditions and a predatory pay and credit system that ruled company owned towns. They achieved this by organizing. A good place to learn about this story is on PBS, where you can watch this excellent documentary about that battle from a century ago.

Explained: Why Health Insurance is a Waste of Money

The New York Times published an interesting and alarming story today.

I think what this NYTimes writer is trying to say is people who can’t afford health insurance die more quickly and cheaply than those who have insurance. Problem solved!

Here's a useful mantra rich people learn at their parents’ financial advisor’s knee.

If you pretend other people don’t exist you don’t have to help them.

If you don’t spend money trying to fix a problem there is no problem.

If something doesn’t happen to you it doesn’t happen.

All money spent helping other people is money wasted.

All money paid to other people is money that’s been stolen from you.

If someone dies horribly in a forest and there’s no healthcare there it doesn’t make a sound.