Social reality is so complicated that, once you join one team or the other, you become specialized in detecting certain patterns, but you become blind to other patterns.
Jonathan HaidtRead
While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Emotions often outweigh logic in persuasion, making it important to connect with people's feelings.
This quote by Jonathan Haidt emphasizes the significant role that emotions play in shaping opinions and beliefs. While presenting logical arguments and evidence can be valuable, they are often ineffective if the audience's feelings are already biased against the speaker. Therefore, it is crucial to engage with people's emotions to foster understanding and influence their perspectives.
Themes
EmotionsPersuasionLogicArgumentsFeelings
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about climate change, one might quote this to emphasize the need for emotional engagement alongside scientific data.
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When you hear someone criticize a policy on the other side, that's fine. But when you start hearing motive-mongering and demonization, stand up to it just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonization, disagreements can be positive.
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