No simple trick can change another person’s worldview against their will

Evidence

I am also often asked for a recipe, a trick to get someone to see the error of their ways, to turn their worldview upside down, and to behave in a way that the inquirer thinks is right. This is usually well-intentioned, and there is sometimes pure desperation and frustration behind the request, but it doesn’t work that way. People are complex and not so easily manipulated into a direction they don’t want to go. My wish with this book was to build up a buffet of different suggestions and ideas for self-service, to give food for thought. Most important to me, however, are not the methods, but the attitude with which I communicate. We need more understanding and mutual respect instead of outrage and denigration. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 8

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The distinction between a manipulable ‘recipe’ and an attitude-centered buffet of options is a genuinely useful reframing of persuasion — most attempts to convert others are motivated less by respect than by frustration.
• XREF: connects to: Lippmann held that no science of society can ground conscious control — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 71

Related

• People change their own minds; persuasion attempts play a small role (similarity 0.81)
• Changing someone’s mind is inherently difficult because it requires changing one’s own mind (similarity 0.80)