Studies show that facts won’t change our beliefs, and if we want to create real change in ourselves or others, we need to be working with the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Facts don’t change people’s beliefs. Ever.
The human species is a mess of mysterious contradictions, and this, apparently, is one of them.
Facts don’t change our beliefs.
There was a study recently that tried to look at ways you could change people’s minds about something – if they had latched on to a false belief.
The study, conducted by Dartmouth University in the US, theorised there were four ways to change somebody’s mind.
- Show them the facts
- Explain the science
- Work their emotions
- Give them stories, examples and anecdotes
And so they wanted to test which was the most effective. Take a look at that list, what do you reckon?
They looked at the link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism. To date there’s been no scientific link between the two, apart from a now discredited report by a doctor with a financial interest in replacing MMR with his own vaccine system.
But the belief is deeply and passionately held by a lot of people. So the question then is, what’s the most effective way to change somebody’s mind?
And so they divided their study of young parents into five groups. One received a leaflet from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention about how there was no link between MMR and autism. Another received a leaflet on the dangers of the diseases MMR is trying to prevent. The third received a package of photos of children with the diseases. The fourth received a story about a child who almost died of measles. The fifth got nothing.
The researchers didn’t get what they bargained for and the results were dramatic.
Nothing.
None of the interventions did anything to change people’s attitudes to vaccination. In fact, three of them backfired. The first leaflet made those who already believed in the negative impacts of vaccines less likely to vaccinate. The images of sick children increased the belief that vaccines cause autism, while the dramatic stories somehow managed to increase belief in the dangers of vaccines.
The researchers described their results as “depressing.”
So how do we understand these results?
The key to understanding it I think is to remember that humans have a very strong attachment to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. I’m this kind of person living in this kind of world.
And it’s like we’re programmed to defend those stories vigorously. Perhaps its about self-esteem. If someone attacks us – “Jon, you’ve got a weak left boot” – then we want to rally to our defence. Ward off the discomfort of the attack and make ourselves feel better.
“Whatever, numnuts.”
And so you have this phenomenon where people will accept new information if it doesn’t relate to the stories they tell about themselves.
Say you think the capital of Canada is Montreal. And then someone tells you it’s actually Ottawa. You don’t really care, and so you accept this new way of viewing the world.
But people reject vigorously anything that challenges their world view. And that’s what we saw in the vaccine study. The folk who were already disposed to vaccines incorporated the information. Those who weren’t, rejected it.
The implication, and this is powerful, is that if you want to change someone’s attitude towards something, you need to get deep down into the stories they tell about themselves.
For example, if you wanted to build consensus for policies tackling climate change, you’re probably working with two competing stories within people. One story is about a person’s independence and not being told what to do. The second is a desire to look after the planet.
Before you ask people to make a choice on a policy that might limit their freedoms to a degree in order to create better climate outcomes, you need to get them aligned with the part of themselves that sees themselves as a being that values the planet.
Once their operating from this space, then they’re likely to willingly embrace the policy you want.
Of course you see this all the time in politics, but normally in reverse. The politics of fear has dominated the past 20 years.
And the firestorm around this year’s budget was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The coalition was incredibly effective at creating a sense of economic emergency. People believed that the whole economic show was collapsing.
But now they’re in power, they’re stuck with that world view. And a fearful people are wondering how you could be so callous – to be cutting spending on welfare, education and services at a time like this. Have you no heart?
Hockey and co. are out there arguing the facts, but as I said, the facts don’t really have much to do with it. And suddenly Bill Shorten the invisible man, finds himself preferred Prime Minister.
They made this bed, and now they have to lie in it. Once you got people all worked up, I don’t think there was anything they could have done with the budget that would have made people happy.
Anyway, this is all just interesting theory so far, but it does have a personal application.
One study gave women a maths test. Half the women were asked to identify if they were male or female before beginning. The other half were not.
The one’s who had to identify as female did consistently worse than those who didn’t – as if they were conforming to the social stereotype of women not being good at maths.
The stories we tell about ourselves are more important than anything, and we act – even subconsciously – to preserve the narrative.
The implication is that if you want to change your life and your luck, you need to change the stories you tell yourself about yourself.
All journeys of change begin here.
Brett Smith says
Brilliant!!
Mark James says
Re the vaccine study – Generally, any information the CDC provides will backfire on people already against vaccines. The CDC simply can’t be trusted! If you don’t believe that, do your own research!
Gary says
QED. Well done Mark your comments have illustrate perfectly the hypothesis suggested in the article.
Simon says
Well I don’t know about the fancy studies and if they are right or wrong, or if Dr Wakefield is right or wrong, or if the medical board who discredited him is right or wrong.
All I know is that our little boy who was growing up just fine, talking just fine and was most photogenic as you could wish for is now no longer any of those as he has regressed and is now profoundly Autistic, which also just happens to be after his MMR shot.
All of the above are just words until you have to live with it, and then stiff cheddar you’re on your own.
Ken. says
Hi Simon, I know how you feel, as this happened to a niece of mine in the exact same way. It made us wonder about ever having kids of our own. All we can do is let the facts speak for themselves. Cheers, Ken.
Will says
Great work and well written! Thank you.
EK says
Thank you Jon. Today’s article was a bit disjointed and irrelevant examples were chosen to make a point. Please do not take this as a criticisms.
In a nutshell, “your perspective creates your thoughts, and your thoughts create everything”.
I completely agree with Mark and Simon on vaccination.
PLEASE DO NOT HAVE ANY VACCINATION ESPECIALLY YOUR CHILDREN.
Please do homework on vaccinations as they are extremely dangerous. They use MERCURY as a preservative and it is dangerous to our health. You can not make someone healthy by using virus in vaccinations. Check Bill Gate’s ( a psychopath) speeches on vaccination to eliminate billions of healthy people…
Sorry, I just could not understand the relevance of political issues ie. budget etc in this article.. Remember politicians do not represent people, they do not care about us, ever. Please check Andrew Bartzis’ (GalacticHistorian.com) soul revocations particularly on governments, media and banking systems. I have great respect for him. (other person is David Icke)
Thank you
NM says
In order to save money it is convenient for the govenment to give us the MMR jab. This means your system has to fight a triple whammy before you recover and develop immunity.
Not sure I believe any study that says there is no problem with this. If you were exposed to a disease in nature it’s not likely it would be a triple whammy. These jabs were all given seperately in the 60’s and 70’s. I don’t see why we should be risking peoples lives to save a few bucks.
Of course that’s just my personal belief system.
Nice article.
Michelle Mitri says
Hi as always I find your posts very interesting and funny! I found your reference to vaccination as a hypothetical interesting but not probably the best choice! I have only just vaccinated my child who is now 16 as I did not want to risk any problems, 16 vaccinations before they are one was just to much of a risk for me to take, I did homeopathic vaccination which have been around for a long time and it worked just fine for my two kids, but now they are of a travelling age and we have recently just come back from India I thought I will now vaccinate them as their immune system has fully developed and could handle the onslaught!
As always though I love your positive outlook to becoming a better person and attracting to you the life you want as Shakespeare said ” Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win”
Glen says
Great as always Jon – I liked your examples and found them easy to understand. I usually give examples when explaining something.
We immunised our 3 kids and none of them fell ill or got autism, so, I guess immunisation must be ok. Gee, I had triple antigen myself as did my wife, so that really adds to the positive argument. Not being flippant, just using the same style of argument also on a tiny sample. I wonder what % the supposed “failures” are, when compared to those given the immunisation? I wonder how the supposed “failure” rate compares to statistics of car accidents, the possibility of which, parents the world over, subject their children to, on a daily basis?
Re: mercury, I wonder how much is used per dose, as a preservative (I just don’t know)? I wonder how it compares to mercury in fish, which many people eat every week?
Back to Jon, thanks. I always enjoy what you have to say.
Josh says
Vaccines are a brilliant soft-kill weapon used by eugenicists.
Kat D says
Reminded me of the letters we receive containing photographs of ‘poor people’ smiling in the face of war, famine, disease, etc. courtesy of the nice charities that solicit donations with predictable regularity. Have I become immune to the smiles juxtaposed with stories of exile, poverty…? You betcha! Why do all these disadvantaged Africans always look happier than many people in my patch of grass? It can’t be the Budget.
Kent says
“Facts don’t change our beliefs” especially when facts are not actually factual.
“They looked at the link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism. To date there’s been no scientific link between the two, apart from a now discredited report by a doctor with a financial interest in replacing MMR with his own vaccine system”.
Andrew Wakefield’s colleague Professor Walker-Smith was cleared of all charges against him that arose from a study of the relationship between gut disease, autism, and the MMR vaccine.
As for Wakefield having his own vaccine that is news to me and I have read a bit on the subject.
Fact is we are close friends with a family that has an autistic child. The autism occurred straight after the MMR shot. Conclusion based on available evidence was that the shot caused the condition.
Fact is I took a month of work and all I did for most of that time was read about this issue. I thought it to be a big decision in the scheme of things and I made an informed decision. I would surmise that the average punter would not spend even an hour researching this issue.
You are right when you say “The key to understanding it I think is to remember that humans have a very strong attachment to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves”. We also look for evidence to support our story.
I consider and review this issue constantly just to see if there is any reason to change my story.
Sue says
Hi Jon,
Thanks for your article which in similar vein to your work, aims to help people better their lives by empowering information. I appreciate your generosity.
While I don’t disagree with the hypothesis in your article, I think a more appropriate example where humans hold ingrained beliefs could be used with an example being the perception of being overweight in bulimic and anorexic states, where the false belief system prevails to the detriment of health and well being.
The example of autism as a result of MMR vaccination has been actively discredired by large pharmaceutical companies who are well served by promoting sales of vaccination product, by eugenic ‘philanthropists’ in subscription to depopulation and health care professionals duped into actively engaging in promotion as parties to the vaccination scam.
It is a challenge to reason why a baby requires upwards of 14 doses of tenuated microbial organism, coupled with toxic preservatives and heavy metals contained in the vaccination as an assault on its developing immune system within it’s first year of life, during a critical time period of immune system development.
The issue is that it is coming to light that it isnt just autism now linked to childhood vaccination,
but chronic diseases such as MS and other neuromuscular disorders, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer and other chronic and complex disease.
Thanks for your article Jon, but sorry to say the choice of MMR and the link to autism is debatable. In this day and age the average oerson is generally a more savvy health care consumer. One could argue that far from the reverse outcome, that ingrained belief systems will be one of the most protective ways in which mankind will protect itself into the future.
David says
Unfortunately Sue, most people, even in developed countries, are scientifically illiterate. With exponential growth in knowledge it’s impossible for anyone to keep up in depth. Our ancient brain processing was tuned to deal with sabre-tooth tigers, not complex, abstract sophisticated concepts. It makes us prone to influence by marketing and advertising which use our biases against us.
Megan says
I agree with Simon, EK, Josh, Kent and Sue. People like Bartzis, Hudes and Ike are our modern day good samaritans. To be aware in this complex day and age is extremely important
Pharmaceutical companies are, by far, the richest companies in the world – we have to follow the money in all events on our slowly being destroyed planet. Vaccinations, fluoride, sprays (includes killing the bees, essential for our existence) – the list goes on and on. Many are silent soft, slow killers to make some rich while culling worldwide populations.
We have to wonder why many poisonous/dangerous substances are not banned in Australia whereas they have been overseas! Don’t automatically believe the media – think beyond the square! Wonder at the agenda…
Arthur A says
Has anyone ever heard of “Brand Awareness” or Branding”? It works a treat. I subscribe to Choice magazine and my friends often ask what the best clothes washer or dish washer is. I make my recommendations based on the testing that the magazine has done and also supply a copy of the article for them to read. NOT ONCE has any of my friends purchased the recommended items (unlike me). They ALWAYS go for the BRAND they seem to believe is best….even if they can see the evidence right in front of them that says it is not. Just do a poll on which political party is best at handling the economy or education…….it’s all about the brand…..no matter what sort of evidence you present.
I see the immunisation issue as similar to the climate change issue. It doesn’t matter what sort of credible and carefully analysed evidence you present to someone, fear dictates that all they will think about is avoiding the worst outcome even if the chances of that outcome are slim. i.e. don’t risk the economy and our own hip pockets just in case over 90% of the worlds scientists are wrong…….and don’t immunise just in case yours is one of the very few children that become autistic.
For those with intentions of manipulation, (like politicians), fear is a wonderfully effective tool. I use it on occasion myself…. for good, not evil 🙂 I use it on my kids, my workmates, my clients….etc.
I once tried to teach my friends all about these tricks but I’ve since grown up………they will never learn.