Changing people's minds on emotionally charged issues is an enormous challenge. But new research reveals a technique that is more effective than most: You just need to lay out the facts—while exerting intense peer pressure.
"While information plays a role in changing a person's opinion, the social delivery of that information has the greatest effect," write Daniel Mallinson and Peter Hatemi of Pennsylvania State University. "Humans have a demonstrated proclivity to conform to their peers when faced with social pressure."
The study, published in the journal PLoS One, examined reactions to the 2011 firing of Joe Paterno, head coach of the football program at Penn State. The decision to sack the legendary coach in light of child sexual abuse charges against one of his top assistants, Jerry Sandusky, "invoked strong and diametrically opposed opinions" in the university community, the researchers note.
[For more on this story by TOM JACOBS, go to https://psmag.com/news/social-...n-on-divisive-issues]
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