what to say to a friend whos a trump supporter
How to Talk Your Friends and Loved Ones Out of Supporting Donald Trump
A lot of people don't retrieve Donald Trump would exist a skillful president. In fact, his disapproval ratings take been at historically high levels for a major-political party presidential nominee for a while now, and seem to be rising as he bulldogs his style into controversy later on controversy. The Washington Post reported this week that seven out of ten Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, a shockingly loftier percentage that is the highest nevertheless recorded during this campaign. (Hillary Clinton has some popularity problems of her own, but they aren't nearly as dire, nor does she reverberate most and then sharp a departure, tone- and policy-wise, from normal American politics.)
On the other hand — clearly, tens of millions of Americans practice like him. You lot don't win a presidential primary — totally steamroll it, in Trump's case — if y'all don't have a lot of fans. While there's e'er a gap betwixt how Democrats and Republicans view the candidates in a given race, when information technology comes to perceptions of Trump'south appeal and qualifications for the presidency, his supporters and opponents are inhabiting dissimilar universes.
So while presidential races often lead to strife amongst family and friends who disagree, this one feels like information technology'due south going to exist a particularly stressful time for those in "cantankerous-candidate" relationships, families, or friendships. Because of Trump's uniquely bombastic, proudly know-aught persona, the stakes seem college and things feel more personal (doubly so if you're 1 of the millions of Americans who is a member of one of the ethnic or religious groups he has attacked).
So what to do if you're disgusted past Trump, merely are in a close relationship with someone who is walking around with one of those "MAKE AMERICA GREAT Once again" hats. Is there anything you lot can do to sway them out of the terrible conclusion they're 5 months away frommaking?
The short, easy answer is no: Political persuasion techniques don't have a good track record of, well, persuading. Researchers haven't really striking on a lot of approaches that work, because political preferences tend to be deeply and strongly held, and tend to come from a identify that has more than to do with emotion than careful deliberations (this is true of all voters, non simplyTrumpkins).
That said, there are some important ideas to keep in mind when you're arguing about politics that can at least help nudge the odds in your favor a bit. Below are three of them.
1. Effort to get them to appoint in "active processing." It'due south easy to brush off political arguments that clash against your own beliefs and preferences. 1 way around this trend is to figure out ways to become people to actually think about — truly and deeply retrieve well-nigh — the statement you're making. This sort of thought is known every bit "active processing," and one fashion to trigger it is to dig into is to make an appeal to your friend or family fellow member's ownlife.
Accept Trump'due south repeated statements bashing Muslims and Mexicans. In all likelihood, your Trump-supporting friend tin can remember a time when they themself were unfairly labeled as bad or treated unfairly simply past dint of some grade of identity or group membership. So if you start your debate not by talking about Trump, only past asking your interlocutor to tell you about a time they felt they were treated unfairly by dint of who they are, and then pivot (gently) into some of Trump's racist arguments, you might have a better take chances of prevailing. And so the argument becomes less "How could yous support such a racist candidate?," and more, "Doesn't the stuff he said nigh Latinos and Muslims remind you of that time someone judged y'all unfairly?" The 2d argument is far less confrontational, far more personal, and at least a little scrap more than likely to succeed. In 1 recent study, at least, this technique seemed to move the needle on people'southward views on transgender rights in of import ways.
2. Quit with all the debunkings. Trump is, even by political standards, a prolific and ostentatious liar. He besides has no grasp on public policy whatsoever, and in well-nigh cases hasn't really bothered developing a platform or coherent positions. Trump says things all the time that aren't true, and his fibs and misrepresentations cover everything from his own business background and apprehending to major public-policy debates. Even after ane of his claims has been debunked, he'll repeat it over and over over again.
Given all this, it's natural that anyone arguing with a Trump-supporting relative would start by pointing out all the stuff Trump has lied about and/or gotten wrong. That would be a error, though. Over and over, political scientists and psychologists, not to mention diverse other researchers, accept shown that when it comes to political arguments, we don't really answer to factual appeals. This technique can fifty-fifty lead to the dreaded "backlash issue" in which challenging someone'southward views by providing disconfirming evidence causes them to cling tighter to those views.
The reason debunking ofttimes doesn't work is that, as I hinted at above, about people don't come up to their political preferences having carefully and logically sifted through their options. Rather, they come up to them from a more gut- and emotion-driven place. Trump'due south fabled impregnable edge wall (that Mexico volition pay for, naturally) is a wonderful case of this principle in activity. Information technology's a horribly impractical idea that would toll billions and do all sorts of impairment, but the voters excited nigh information technology obviously haven't run the numbers or looked closely at the proposal (at that place isn't fifty-fifty a detailed proposal to await at) — rather, the wall, as a symbol, speaks to their feelings about immigration and humiliation and American greatness and whatsoever else. (Trump voters aren't alone in doing this, of course — can y'all confidently say you've never thrown your back up backside a political idea because it felt correct, without knowing the total details?) And then if they didn't intendance almost the numbers when they adopted their conventionalities that the wall is a expert idea, why would pointing to the project's impracticality cause them to discard thebelief?
3. Make the argument about the values they care about, not the ones you care about. This is some other common error. If you're like most Americans, Trump offends, annoys, and enrages y'all for any number of reasons. These reasons may feel actually important to you, they may go you fired upwardly, just remember: you're not arguing with yourself, but rather with someone who supports Trump. And as social psychologists like Jon Haidt have argued and shown in their research, one of the fundamental reasons people disagree well-nigh politics is that they accept very different senses of morality. To oversimplify a bit: For conservative, in-group/out-group distinctions tend to thing more than they practise for liberals; for liberals, treat vulnerable people ofttimes trumps us and them.
Then if you're going to have any chance at disarming them, it's important that you operate from their level or moral reasoning. This is a very context-dependent tactic, of course. If your Trump-supporting relative is a patriotic flag-waving type, for example, y'all might first by emphasizing to them how nifty America is and how damaging information technology could be to manus over the country'south keys to someone who has shown so little existent interest in leading. If your relative is more business-minded, for example, yous might gently explicate to them that while Trump puts on a expert bear witness, for decades he didn't pay many of his vendors what they were owed, and his direction of his casinos has been defective at best. If he tin't run his own businesses, isn't at that place a chance he's non the best choice to run the country? Sometimes, this will involve adopting arguments that don't really reflect yourself and your own political views. That'southward fine — because again, your views aren't the indicate here.
Over again, there are of import limitations to go on in mind. It's unlikely you are going to sit down with your Trump-supporting brother or uncle or friend, talk things out, and walk away having convinced them to stay habitation or to vote for Clinton. If persuasion were that easy, our land wouldn't exist mired in polarization and partisan gridlock.
But it's still useful to accept these tools at your disposal — knowing the details nigh how people form political opinions, and under what circumstances those opinions tin potentially change, can at least prevent you lot from getting flustered and stumbling immediately into belligerent quickstand. If you want to know more details well-nigh all this stuff, much of the enquiry that informs this post is explained, in greater item, in my articles on how awareness is overrated, how to win political arguments, how to convince conservatives man-made climate change is real, and the say-so of "purity" arguments when information technology comes to fears over genetically modifiedfoods.
Skillful luck out there — let'southward make political arguments bullyagain.
Source: https://www.thecut.com/2016/06/how-to-talk-your-friends-and-loved-ones-out-of-supporting-donald-trump.html
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