How Minds Change, The New Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion, reviewed

We review this interesting book by David McRaney, How Minds Change, The New Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. See more about the book on the Penguin Random House website here.

How Minds Change reviewed

This is a striking, compelling and enjoyable book. We are very much in times of people entrenched in their views, often going deep down into rabbit holes of anti-science conspiracy theory points of view. Naturally if you believe that September 11th was a fake, or that we really live on a flat earth, you will instantly declare that those who think otherwise have been captured by vested interests and the deep state.

McRaney covers a variety of very relatable topics and examines why people attachment themselves to views that seem deeply questionable and out of synch with all received wisdom and data based observations. You naturally only have to look at the author’s own country, where it is deeply mired in a strange strange time where ‘the big lie’, that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump has become an assertion of fealty or otherwise to someone, who has themselves acknowledge that they lost the election. How and why do otherwise sane people disregard all fact based evidence to adhere to this alternative belief?

David McRaney digs into these type of views and the ethos that makes people fight to hold onto them. He also looks at the rapid switch from a large number of the population being opposed to homosexuality, to then, in a very short period of time, seeing same sex marriages being supported in legislation and presidential decrees. Why did this happen, how could people’s opinions and beliefs change so quickly? We really enjoyed reading this book, it is deeply thought provoking and we will be recommending it to others to read.

Well worth reading, launched this week, check it out, it could help lots of people in working out more effective ways to communicate with each other.

More about the How Minds Change

A brain-bending investigation of why some people never change their minds—and others do in an instant—by the bestselling author of You Are Not So Smart

What made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, HOW MINDS CHANGE is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation.

When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone’s mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther’s conversion blew up his theories—inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing.

Want to read a brain-bending investigation of why some people never change their minds—and others do in an instant? Want to learn how to change minds, including your own? Here are all the ways you can preorder How Minds Change: https://t.co/iDiJIDHRFx pic.twitter.com/O6wYFD5xMX

— David McRaney (@davidmcraney) March 9, 2022

Told with McRaney’s trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it’s an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists, from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California—that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?

An expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative, HOW MINDS CHANGE reaches surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, to demonstrate the rare but transformative circumstances under which minds can change.

More about David McRaney

A two-time winner of the William Randolph Hearst Award, journalist David McRaney writes the blog youarenotsosmart.com. A self-described psychology nerd, he lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

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