Transformative Dialogue: 10 techniques to “change someone’s mind” (part 1)

(This essay will demonstrate how to explore the beliefs and perspective of others. Part 2 will explain how to advocate for your own positions).

What does it mean to “change someone’s mind?” Here I offer three definitions.

1.The first is to change the content of what one believes, e.g. believing climate change is a hoax to believing it’s real. This is the conventional understanding of changing one’s mind — to replace content X with content Y. Here beliefs are seen to be mutually exclusive, as one belief trumps another. This is what I call a horizontal shift in thinking.

2. The second definition involves upping the complexity level surrounding a belief, increasing the capacity for nuance, subtleties, and additional perspectives, but not necessarily changing the content of a belief. One could still believe climate change is real but more fully grok the elaborate complexity of the issue, seeing the many intricacies involved. Things aren’t so black and white, as there is a shift in how one thinks, a complexification of one’s underlying thinking process, an expansion of their mind. This is what I call a vertical shift in thinking, as how one thinks about an issue shifts to a higher level of nuance and sophistication.