Former believers are uniquely valuable sources on how worldviews actually change
Evidence
We decided to talk to very different people who have a lot of experience in such discussions, on social networks, in blogs, in the comment columns of newspapers, or quite directly, in the doctor’s office or in youth work. But it was especially important for us to talk to people who have been on the other side themselves, who believed in conspiracy myths, alternative medicine, or ghosts, but then fundamentally changed their worldview. What made a vaccine-critical mother change her mind, what made a YouTube guru, a homeopathic doctor or a conspiracy believer change theirs? And what can we learn from this for discussions with such people? — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 10
Categorization
- SEED: Interviewing ex-believers rather than experts is a research design insight worth emulating and worth an article about why retrospection by converts beats advice from professionals.
Related
- Belief change begins inside the believer before outside conversations matter (similarity 0.80)
- People change their own minds; persuasion attempts play a small role (similarity 0.80)
- Genuine belief change is possible and rare, centered on an initial crack of doubt (similarity 0.79)
- Deconverts often become bitter toward their former belief community. (similarity 0.79)
- Believers view science as fixed dogma while seeing beliefs as personal experience (similarity 0.78)