… “holds that people make rational decisions by assessing facts. All that has to be done to persuade people is to lay out the data: they will then use it to decide which options best support their interests and desires.
“But a host of psychological experiments have shown that it simply doesn’t work like this. Instead of performing a rational cost-benefit analysis, we accept only that information which confirms our identity and values, rejecting any of the information that conflicts with them. In other words, we mould our thinking around our social identity, protecting it from serious challenge, and so confronting people with inconvenient facts is likely only to harden their resistance to change.
“So we must lead this shift ourselves. People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want, not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others, on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel.
“In asserting our values we can then become the change we want to see.”
George Monbiot, in Resurgence