You are here

Persuasion in Parallel: How Information Changes Minds about Politics

Primary tabs

Monday, October 16, 2023 - 12:00pm to 2:00pm

Location: Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88955380062?pwd=UWwwU2h6Ym11TGFHQUlWSDlzdVM0Zz09(link is external)

"Overturns” conventional wisdom. Is sharing information useless in politics? This book argues that people do change their minds in response to information.. Uses evidence from randomized controlled trials; most everyone updates toward information, at least a little. Affects people on both right and left. “The other side is not lost."

From Amazon:

Many mistakenly believe that it is fruitless to try to persuade those who disagree with them about politics. However, Persuasion in Parallel shows that individuals do, in fact, change their minds in response to information, with partisans on either side of the political aisle updating their views roughly in parallel. This book challenges the dominant view that persuasive information can often backfire because people are supposedly motivated to reason against information they dislike. Drawing on evidence from a series of randomized controlled trials, the book shows that the backfire response is rare to nonexistent. Instead, it shows that most everyone updates in the direction of information, at least a little bit. The political upshot of this work is that the other side is not lost. Even messages we don't like can move us in the right direction.