Dr. Kurt Gray

Like those are fighting words.

We wanted to get people feeling a little angry.

And then she followed that up with the reason she believed that people should have more guns.

And she either said, look, here's a specific statistic.

I forget the statistic now, but she's like, here's a statistic.

about how many people use guns to protect themselves every year.

Or here's a story.

When I was a kid, my mom used a gun to defend herself from a home invader.

Then we recorded those conversations.

We had a team of research assistants rake them for respectfulness.

And it turns out that using stories led to more respect from the other person and also led her to be seen as more rational.

And that's interesting, right?

Because we usually think of the other side as stupid, as irrational.

But if you ground your political views and experiences of harm, even if we disagree with those views, we can understand the desire to protect yourself.

Exactly.

And that's a great point.

In other studies, we found that personal experiences seem more true.

And I'm a scientist.

I still think facts are important.

They're just not what you should lead with when you're about to start a conversation with someone who disagrees with you.