Seven Levers to Change People’s Minds

Seven Levers to Change People’s Minds

• What does it take to change one’s mind?
• How do we change our minds?
• What happens when we change our minds?

Howard Gardner (“Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and
Other People’s Minds”) says the first step toward changing a person’s mind is no
surprise: “Know thine audience.” The tactics individual use to influence their senior
 individuals should be different from those he/she uses to persuade a large group of
people. Age is another factor to consider. Gardner says, “As you age, the neural
networks become like a road that has been driven down over and over again. There
are deep ruts.”

Beliefs also become deeply ingrained and reinforced over time; the longer people
believe something, the better they get at deflecting counterarguments.
Gardner has identified seven factors—he calls them levers—that are effective in
influencing a person to change his mind:

1. Reason: Reasoning involves logical outlining the pros and cons of a decision.
• The use of reason figures heavily in matters of belief
• Especially useful for educated people
• Uses rational approach in identifying and weighing relevant factors
• Often involves sheer logic, use of analogies etc.,
• Pareto’s 80/20 principle holds relevance (According to Pareto Principle
one can in general accomplish most (perhaps up to 80%) with a relatively
modest amount of effort (perhaps up 20%)

2. Research: It involves presenting data and relevant cases to support the
argument.
• Useful especially for educated people with scientific temperament
• Can proceed in systematic manner – even with statistics – to verify
trends
• 80/20 principle will guide behavior and thought

3. Resonance: It involves using ones like ability and emotional appeal to win
support for ones argument.
• A view, idea or perspective resonates if it feels right.
• Resonance appeals to the affective component of the human brain –
not cognitive component
• Fit occurs at the subconscious level, and may conflict with reason
• Fit occurs if one feels ‘relation’ to the mind changer (i.e., ‘reliable’,
‘respects’ etc.)
• 80/20 fully applies here

4. Representational Re-descriptions: It is making a point in many different ways
- using humour, stories and pictures; acting out a scenario.
• A change of mind becomes convincing if it lends itself to
representation in different forms
• Especially true, if forms reinforce each other
• 80/20 principle is less applicable here

5. Resources and Rewards: It is one using rewards or punishments as incentives
to convince someone to adopt his/her viewpoint
• Mind changing is more likely to occur when considerable resources
can be drawn on
• The provision of resources is an instance of positive reinforcement
• 80/20 principle is fully applicable here

6. Real World Events: Using events from the society to make one’s point
• A major event, like, September 11 terrorists’ attack on twin-towers in
US, tsunami or earthquake may drastically change one’s mind.
• Events would push people towards adopting the 80/20 principle from
a conventional 50/50 principle

7. Resistance: People have a tendency to develop strong views that are resistant
and revert to 50/50 principle

• One has to understand the factors that cause people to reject a
particular point of view. Such insights can make it easier for one to
change his/her mindset.