We spent time in part 1, part2 , and part3 in this series speaking about the difficulty in changing minds once formed. We also spent some time talking about the ‘deep work’ needed and how to change to change minds.
We have seen just how difficult it is to change minds and rare.
In writing those posts, I realized that is not what most people in our field are speaking of when they talk about “changing minds.”
(In fact, we may not want to affect your mind, opinion at all. We may be more interested in affecting your behavior. Does a political actor really care what you “think” as long as you vote or don’t vote this specific way?)
I have heard one researcher say to actually change minds, a relationship is required. In today’s politics, there are few relationships formed outside partisanship.
So, for the most part, we aren’t talking about changing minds at all.
What we really want to know about is…..propaganda.
Propaganda – the techniques of mass persuasion. The use of symbols and psychology to prey on prejudices and emotions with the intent of having the “recipient” come to think it is all their idea and adopt a position.
We must return to our model of thinking.
We have two main systems – System 1 (fast, automatic) and System 2 (slow, deliberate).
I have used the metaphor of the rider and the elephant. Others have used other metaphors (the Gator and the Judge).
Regardless of what you call them, System 1 is continuously scanning, decided on what one will focus on, ignore, and / or use some sort of heuristic to process quickly. System 2 takes effort, requires one to slow down.
As a researcher said, “System 1 is judging all the time, and system 2 decides – but only sometimes” and I will add : “and rarely”.
THE BASIS OF MASS PUBLIC OPINION
John Zaller in his work, The Nature of Origins of Mass Opinion, expands on the important concept with 4 ‘axioms’:
1) reception – greater a person’s engagement with an issue, the more likely they will take in and seek out information.
2) resistance – people tend to resist arguments that are inconsistent with their political per-dispositions.
3) accessibility – the more recent consideration has been given the less time it takes to form a thought about the subject.
4) response – people form opinions and provide survey answers by averaging across everything that is immediately salient or accessible to them.
Said in a different way, most people who are into politics have their minds made up and seek out information to fortify their positions. Others, who aren’t into politics – are the most difficult to reach and yet the most persuadable – mostly by what they experience in their current environment.
Hate to break it to all of us in the political realm, most of the public just isn’t that into us. Most don’t think deeply about candidates, issues, or the use of political power. They have other priorities.
For the most part, in politics we aren’t doing the deep work to change hearts and minds, we are looking for those who agree or are inclined to agree with us – then motivating them. We are identifying those who don’t agree with us and unmotivating them.
Persuasion in this sense is less about changing minds or behavior, but rather on creating the environment then prompting you to act – creating the illusion the change was your idea all along.
One of the main concepts I have come to understand – System 1 is an always-on, giant threat detector. It is continuously scanning for anything that can injure, hurt, and/or kill us.
Our minds therefore our attention naturally gravitates towards deviations from the norm and any and all perceived threat(s). If there is no threat, no novelty, or no one/something we trust to interrupt the elephant, System 1, the elephant, just lumbers on. Our brains simply ignore most banal or routine things.
CONCLUSION
In summation, this means the processing of most political information is happening largely in System 1 using mental shortcuts – affecting this sytem – this is where the real power of persuasion lies.
Rarely is system 2 used (especially if it requires us to think against the groups we hold dear), like it or not, the main route of persuasion is through System 1, the playground of propaganda.
COMING NEXT
The perfect propaganda recipe.
