“We like to think we change people's behavior through information, through education, through persuasion. Now, these things often don't work, but we keep doing them because we have an unshakable faith in a core assumption about human nature. If you want to shape how people behave, you must first change the way they think.”
Hidden Brain podcast: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=602872309
I love this because it’s super-important (#Holocaust, #Rwanda 🇷🇼) but also subverts our Galen-ish ideas about how things change.
Oh in case it was unclear, Vedantam is saying that changing how people think is NOT necessary nor sufficient to changing their behavior. Information, education, and persuasion are NOT great ways to change behavior.
“If you want to shape how people behave, you must first change the way they think” is a bad assumption.
“One of the messages of this radio program was, you should dissent against authority; you should make your voice heard.” —Dr Betsy Paluck on Hidden Brain.
I don’t like it when people claim that questioning authority is a uniquely American feature. It isn’t, but it is awesome, and it deserves to be spread with more vigor. It won’t solve everything but it will make life everywhere more interesting.
Question authority.
Nullius in verba.
Prepare to be confused.
Don’t expect everything.
Be nice.