August 17th, 2022: How Minds Change with David McRaney

<p>David McRaney is an author, science journalist, lecturer, and the creator of<br /> the blog You Are Not So Smart, which became an internationally<br /> bestselling book, later followed by You Are Now Less Dumb.<br /> He hosts the popular YANSS podcast and speaks internationally about<br /> irrational thinking and delusion.<br /> And David has a new book called “How Minds Change: The Surprising<br /> Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion.”<br /> This is a big show, covering a lot of ground. He and Melanie discuss the<br /> psychology of changing minds, both our own as well as others.<br /> How to have conversations that might be difficult is part of the thread. As<br /> David said, “It’s more about how you’re approaching the conversation.”<br /> And he gets into the particulars of what contemporary interdisciplinary<br /> scientific research says is most effective.<br /> David’s got an intriguing interdisciplinary approach, encompassing the<br /> fields of psychology, sociology, conflict, tribal psychology, and yes ... even<br /> more.</p> <p>As he writes in his book, “How Minds Change”:<br /> “Societies aren’t fixed. Large social systems, though they seem<br /> stable, are always changing in subtle ways that are imperceptible to the<br /> people living within them. Even if thresholds remain constant in a way that<br /> prevents a cascade from building momentum within a single group, all<br /> manner of circumstances can affect the average number of connections<br /> between groups, altering the conditions in ways that randomly create<br /> percolating vulnerable clusters. Any society can, without its knowledge,<br /> change from one in which a global cascade is impossible to one in which it</p> <p>could happen at any time. Repeated shocks to the system that before<br /> seemed futile now have the potential to change the world.<br /> “Change can creep along with no signs of meaningful progress for<br /> decades. It makes the status quo seem like it was unanimously agreed<br /> upon, stable and eternal. It