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Posted on Aug 17, 2014, 9 a.m.
Agreeing with others may be a powerful way to challenge opinions.
Arguments often fail to resolve conflicts, never mind change attitudes. Eran Halperin, from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (Israel), and colleagues enrolled 150 subjects to assess their perspectives on the polarizing political issues in the Middle East. The researchers found that showing people extreme versions of ideas that confirmed – not contradicted – their opinions actually caused them to reconsider their stance and become more receptive to other points of view. The study authors report that: “participants who were exposed to the intervention expressed more conciliatory attitudes regarding the conflict, even 1 [year] after the intervention.”
Boaz Hameiri, Roni Porat, Daniel Bar-Tal, Atara Bieler, Eran Halperin. “Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace.” PNAS, July 14, 2014.
