STIVEN PINKER

When it comes to changing people's minds, it is very difficult to jump from one side to another. You can't jump down the spectrum. You have to slide down it. The best place to ponder a threatening idea is in a non-threatening environment.

In conversation, people have to carefully consider...

Silence is death for any idea. An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated.They can only be believed when they are repeated.

People also repeat bad ideas when they ...

When we are in the moment, we can easily forget that the goal is to connect with the other side, collaborate with them, befriend them, and integrate them into our tribe. We are so caught up in winning that we forget about connecting. It's easy to spend your energy labeling people rather than work...

Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing societies. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them ...

If the goal is to actually change minds, then criticizing the other side isn't the best approach.

Most people argue to win. People often act like soldiers rather than scouts. Soldiers are on the intellectual attack looking to defeat the peo...

False beliefs can be useful in a social sense even if they are not useful in a factual sense. We might call this approach “facutually false but socially accurate.” When we have to choose between the two, people often select friends and family over facts.