Eleanor Gordon Smith

had so much more to do with who he believed than what he believed. And that really stands out to me as a lesson about how we can set out changing people's minds, is that if we find ourselves trying to change someone's mind like Dylan's, often our best bet is to disrupt the trust allocations that people have rather than to try to present them with an argument.

It is a really, it's a really daunting task. When people change their minds and... have to forfeit the part of themselves that was connected to the old belief. It's almost like a period of grieving. It's a kind of loss. They realize that they have to let go of the way that they've been seeing themselves. And a whole bunch of other things can tumble down with that.

It is a really, it's a really daunting task. When people change their minds and... have to forfeit the part of themselves that was connected to the old belief. It's almost like a period of grieving. It's a kind of loss. They realize that they have to let go of the way that they've been seeing themselves. And a whole bunch of other things can tumble down with that.

It is a really, it's a really daunting task. When people change their minds and... have to forfeit the part of themselves that was connected to the old belief. It's almost like a period of grieving. It's a kind of loss. They realize that they have to let go of the way that they've been seeing themselves. And a whole bunch of other things can tumble down with that.

Things like the friends that you're keeping company or the ways that you structure your time. A lot of that changes when you forfeit a belief, particularly a belief of the kind that you just mentioned, something as foundational to your identity as your politics or your religion. You sort of almost have to help someone find their way to what life will look like after they've changed their mind.

Things like the friends that you're keeping company or the ways that you structure your time. A lot of that changes when you forfeit a belief, particularly a belief of the kind that you just mentioned, something as foundational to your identity as your politics or your religion. You sort of almost have to help someone find their way to what life will look like after they've changed their mind.

Things like the friends that you're keeping company or the ways that you structure your time. A lot of that changes when you forfeit a belief, particularly a belief of the kind that you just mentioned, something as foundational to your identity as your politics or your religion. You sort of almost have to help someone find their way to what life will look like after they've changed their mind.

And that can feel really hard because you don't want to help everyone to a new particular sense of self. You don't want to be the one to smooth the transition for every particular person. But I think it's often pragmatically the case that if people have other sources of self to draw on, then they don't need to rely so heavily on this particular belief.

And that can feel really hard because you don't want to help everyone to a new particular sense of self. You don't want to be the one to smooth the transition for every particular person. But I think it's often pragmatically the case that if people have other sources of self to draw on, then they don't need to rely so heavily on this particular belief.

And that can feel really hard because you don't want to help everyone to a new particular sense of self. You don't want to be the one to smooth the transition for every particular person. But I think it's often pragmatically the case that if people have other sources of self to draw on, then they don't need to rely so heavily on this particular belief.

for me anyway, once I'd done all this research and spoken to all these people who changed their minds and realized just how astonishingly complicated and personal and long the process of changing a mind really is, it generates exactly this question. And I'm like, well, can I be bothered to do that for every person who has a bad belief? And the answer is obviously no.

for me anyway, once I'd done all this research and spoken to all these people who changed their minds and realized just how astonishingly complicated and personal and long the process of changing a mind really is, it generates exactly this question. And I'm like, well, can I be bothered to do that for every person who has a bad belief? And the answer is obviously no.

for me anyway, once I'd done all this research and spoken to all these people who changed their minds and realized just how astonishingly complicated and personal and long the process of changing a mind really is, it generates exactly this question. And I'm like, well, can I be bothered to do that for every person who has a bad belief? And the answer is obviously no.

I mean, like we just don't have the time, nevermind the patience to do that. I do think though, that that's kind of a useful thing to realize in itself. You know, I mean, we have this

I mean, like we just don't have the time, nevermind the patience to do that. I do think though, that that's kind of a useful thing to realize in itself. You know, I mean, we have this

I mean, like we just don't have the time, nevermind the patience to do that. I do think though, that that's kind of a useful thing to realize in itself. You know, I mean, we have this

climate of public debate at the moment which tells us over and over again that if we only speak to each other more we'll be able to change people's minds and we see this played out over and over again in the political arena where we put people on stage you know one against the other and think that in a certain amount of allotted time we're going to be able to change the audience members minds in anything like a productive way I think it's

climate of public debate at the moment which tells us over and over again that if we only speak to each other more we'll be able to change people's minds and we see this played out over and over again in the political arena where we put people on stage you know one against the other and think that in a certain amount of allotted time we're going to be able to change the audience members minds in anything like a productive way I think it's

climate of public debate at the moment which tells us over and over again that if we only speak to each other more we'll be able to change people's minds and we see this played out over and over again in the political arena where we put people on stage you know one against the other and think that in a certain amount of allotted time we're going to be able to change the audience members minds in anything like a productive way I think it's

really valuable for us to reflect on just how difficult it is to really change a mind. And there may be cases where that's worth our patience and there may be cases where that's worth our time.