Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 4 MindBrained Bulletin Think Tank Conf Bias Apr 20 | Page 12

ever true or proved. (Good grief, an absolute.) Frame the world in probabilities
instead.
2. Always assume the other person is intelligent and knows things you don’t.
If what your partner claims does not gel with your beliefs, assume both of you are
wrong.
3. Practice bracketed listening. Temporarily bracket off your own beliefs in
order to enter the speaker’s own world. For a few minutes at the start, force yourself
to assume for the moment everything your informant is saying is true.
4. Doubt your idols. If you have a website or intellectual you really like (John
Oliver for me), attach warning flags.
5. Be a skeptic and doubt everything (but in a positive way). Search for contrary
opinions to everything you agree with.
6. Use Bayesian reasoning. This statistical tool basically says that extraordinary
(improbable) claims require extraordinary (massive) evidence.
7. Have hope. The notion that you can’t change someone else’s mind, once set, is
wrong. According to research presented in a superb article, “Fighting Post-Truth,”
you can. Although a backfire effect is produced the first time opposing information is
encountered, eventually, through repetition of facts, an affective tipping point is
reached, and the other person updates their views. As written in the article:
“While misinformed beliefs can be quite stubborn, it is possible to change partisans’
minds when one ‘hits them between the eyes’ over and over with factually correct
information.”
Curtis Kelly (EDD), the first coordinator of the JALT Mind, Brain,
and Education SIG, is a professor of English at Kansai University in
Japan. He has written about 30 books, 100 articles, and given
around 400 presentations.
Michael Shermer’s thoroughly
enjoyable Ted Talk on why
people believe weird things.