How to Convince Someone That You’re Right (Even If You’re Not)

Most conversations online about ideology seem to be like a lame snowball fight. It might make you wonder if there is a better way? Well, neuroscience says, there just might be.

I Am Right, You Are Wrong: How Biased Assimilation Increases the Perceived Gap between Believers and Skeptics of Violent Video Game Effects
“Despite hundreds of studies, there is continuing debate about the extent to which violent video games increase aggression. Believers argue that playing violent video games increases aggression, but this stance is disputed by skeptics. The present study addressed believers' and skeptics' responses to summaries of scientific studies that do or do not present evidence for increased aggression after violent video game play.”

Engaged listeners: shared neural processing of powerful political speeches.
“Powerful speeches can captivate audiences, whereas weaker speeches fail to engage their listeners. What is happening in the brains of a captivated audience?”

“Crucially, alignment of the time course across listeners was stronger for rhetorically powerful speeches, especially for bilateral regions of the superior temporal gyri and medial prefrontal cortex. Thus, during powerful speeches, listeners as a group are more coupled to each other, suggesting that powerful speeches are more potent in taking control of the listeners' brain responses.”

How to become an ‘elastic thinker’ and problem solver.
“Unlike analytical thinkers who are driven by logic and sequence, flexible thinkers thrive in situations which involve breaking boundaries and trying new things. The idea of flexible thinking has, of course, been around for aeons but for author, physicist and screenwriter Leonard Mlodinow, it’s now prime time for people to harness the power of ‘elastic thinking’ to navigate an unstable world.”

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Your brain is extremely complex and it influences the way you think and the choices that you make. Thought Process examines how your brain behaves when it encounters events and actions, both positive and negative, and how that directly affects who you are. This is your brain on conflict, failure, nostalgia, power, money and more.

Seeker explains every aspect of our world through a lens of science, inspiring a new generation of curious minds who want to know how today’s discoveries in science, math, engineering and technology are impacting our lives, and shaping our future. Our stories parse meaning from the noise in a world of rapidly changing information.

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Special thanks to Mamoudou N’Diaye for hosting and writing this episode of Seeker!

[TommoCarroll]

"Did you read my paper on confirmation bias?"

"Well yes...but it only told me what I already knew"

[Stealthy_Phenotype]

Guess i am the only person that thinks he talks too fast and and had to put the video at 0.75 speed to understand his words. Might be the lack of sleep.

[justanotherguy]

But, how to convince someone that you are right?
first step should be TALK SLOW

[whatisthis]

He is talking too slow i put it on 1.25x speed

[TMSxYouT]

Can you pls speak more clearly and slowly? you know not all your auditory are from US, thx.

[Omnifarious]

There are people who act as if things are existential threats when they're not. Someone saying that you are mistaken about your identity is not advocating that you cease to exist.

[Master_Therion]

1:07 Space Jam did have a great soundtrack... that's my jam.

[whatisthis]

All our moms watched this video quite a few years before it came out.

[spreadlove]

That’s what I’ve always been saying. People think they care about the facts but really they’re seeking for opinions that reinforce their biased opinions, ignorance, prejudice and preconceived notions. They don’t care about facts. They think they do but they don’t. They just want to hear what they want to hear and don’t want to be challenged. Now I know it’s called confirmation bias. I’ve noticed it and I’ve been saying it all along. When you don’t believe in scientific researches done by creditable sources and experts in their fields who have spent years on a particular professional research and when you have done zero proper research and zero accurate studies yet you think you somehow know better, it’s an insult to human intelligence and human accumulation of wisdoms. It’s like people from the past who thought oxygen didn’t exist, earth was flat or magical events were real. It’s a primitive and toxic mindset especially when it comes to important issues.

[dillonqaphsiel]

Framing something that makes it seem positive make me think of soft drink companies that increase prices during off seasons but say it’s the normal price and the other times are discounted.

[rockerdax]

All I got out of this was "Be positive, play on emotions to drive a point home, and play My Immortal in the background when you give a speech".

[dva]

I'm sure these 115 dislikes are from people who didn't understand a word of what you said!

[circle]

Thanks, now I can prove it's yanny!

[Yaxoi]

Some constructive feedback: I enjoy the other seeker formats more. They usually try to tell a story, they are calm and analytical. This is just too hectic in my opinion. The topics are interesting though.

[ClovisStarNews]

I weep for the freedom of my culture when I discover at this early day of its productive experiment that corruption continues to be imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, while the human rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.

[Lyle-xcpg]

We dont need to read your shirt to know your black

[justusong]

After the ad ended my entertainment apps got locked so I had to wait another day to watch this video

[jonathancain]

It takes balls to confess that you are wrong in an argument, some people just lack 'em

[gauravmalltarlok]

That feeling you get when you think you understand him but then realize that you had captions all that time.
Edit: Yeah, I liked my own comment.

[fossforever]

Yeah. Because convincing someone you’re correct when you aren’t is something a good person would want to do.