Deep canvassing, street epistemology, and other tools of persuasion (with David McRaney)

1. Ethical Self-Reflection First

Before attempting persuasion, honestly evaluate your own motivations: ensure your goal is genuinely to seek truth, reduce harm, or find shared positive outcomes, and be open to changing your own mind. This ensures ethical engagement and respects the other person’s agency.

2. Establish Rapport & Consent

Always start by establishing rapport and seeking consent to explore someone’s reasoning. Frame the conversation as a shared exploration of disagreement (“shoulder-to-shoulder”) rather than a debate, to reduce defensiveness and threat to agency.

3. Focus on Self-Persuasion

When attempting persuasion, focus on helping the other person understand their own thinking and motivations, rather than trying to defeat them or coerce them. This encourages self-persuasion by examining their certainty and confidence.

4. Avoid “Fact Dumping”

Avoid simply “dumping facts” on someone you’re trying to persuade, as this often triggers motivated reasoning and cherry-picking of evidence. Instead, use metacognitive techniques to help them recognize their own reasoning process.

5. Employ Technique Rebuttal

In personal conversations, employ “technique rebuttal” by guiding the other person to introspect on why they hold their beliefs and their level of certainty, rather than using “topic rebuttal” which directly challenges their facts or arguments.

6. Prompt Self-Generated Counter-Arguments

To encourage self-persuasion, ask questions that prompt the person to generate their own counter-arguments or reasons for not holding an even stronger position (e.g., “Why isn’t your confidence 100%?”). This creates internal cognitive dissonance they are motivated to resolve.

7. Identify Persuasion Target

Before employing persuasion, identify the exact target: an attitude, a belief, a value, or a behavior. Different targets require different approaches (e.g., attitudes need focus on underlying feelings/identity, not just facts).

8. Understand Underlying Goals

Understand the underlying goal driving someone’s reasoning. If their goal is social (e.g., group belonging) rather than accuracy, address the social motivation rather than just presenting facts.

9. Uncover Hidden Motivations

Recognize that people may not genuinely know why they hold a certain strong feeling or belief. Instead of directly challenging their stated reasons, help them uncover and articulate hidden motivations and drives behind their position.

10. Tailor to Elaboration Likelihood

Tailor your persuasion approach based on the listener’s likelihood of elaboration. If high, use strong, logical arguments (central route). If low, use peripheral cues like speaker credibility or quantity of arguments.

11. Enhance Elaboration Likelihood

To increase the likelihood of central route processing (focus on merits), enhance the listener’s motivation and ability. This can be done by making the topic personally relevant, reducing cognitive load (e.g., quiet environment, clear message), or highlighting potential social implications.

12. Leverage Assimilation & Accommodation

When introducing new concepts, build upon existing understanding (assimilation) by using familiar examples or analogies. For deeper, more profound change (accommodation), help the person see that not updating their model is riskier than updating it.

13. Acknowledge Affective Tipping Point

While there’s an “affective tipping point” where evidence becomes overwhelming, be aware that people actively control their information intake to avoid reaching it. Direct evidence alone may not be sufficient if they can filter it out.

14. Confirm Claims & Definitions

For fact-based issues, clearly state and confirm the other person’s claim by repeating it back, and clarify their definitions, using their terminology, to ensure mutual understanding.

15. Rate Confidence Level

Ask the person to rate their confidence level (e.g., 0-100%) in their claim. This prompts metacognition and sets the stage for exploring the basis of their certainty.

16. Explore Reasons for Confidence

After establishing a confidence level, ask why they hold that specific level of confidence and what methods they used to arrive at their reasons. This encourages deeper introspection into their reasoning process.

17. Use “Why Does That Number Feel Right?”

For attitude-based issues, ask for a strength rating (1-10), then present a relevant story or ad. Afterward, re-ask the rating and, crucially, “Why does that number feel right to you?” to prompt emotional and value-based introspection.

18. Explore Origins of Beliefs

Encourage reflection on the origins of their beliefs or attitudes by asking questions like, “Was there a time in your life before you felt that way?” This helps uncover underlying motivations and historical context.