To Change Attitudes, Create Human Connections

For decades, researchers have tried solve the question of what’s the best way to change strong attitudes, such as prejudice. The answer, as Steve Hilton states in More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First, is to give people the ability to see others as human beings that are more similar to us than we usually perceive them to be.

In the 1960s, the approach to ending “separate but equal,” and creating equal rights was an act of integration: it sought for people of different races to connect with one another so they would reduce their prejudice. However, because contact alone doesn’t change a fundamental belief that “we’re in this bigger picture together,” the attempt failed. Two psychologists, Muzafer and Caroline Sherif created “The Robbers Cave Experiment” (1954) to discover what might actually enable two conflicting groups to overcome their prejudices, and discovered that the answer was the creation of a super-ordinate goal; a goal that could only be accomplished if both groups see each other as humans, like themselves, rather than stereotyped “others”.

We’ve seen this same phenomenon take place more recently, when staunch anti-gay rights conservative politicians such as former vice President Dick Cheney, broke with his opposition of gay marriage for his lesbian daughter. Senator Rob Portman did the same thing upon learning his son was gay, because he instead viewed the issue from “a new perspective, and that of a dad who loves his son and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister have — to have a relationship like (my wife) and I have had for over 26 years.”

Thus, for presenters, the key is to bring theoretical issues and global facts down to the human level and consider how it can affect the audience’s lives directly. Smart politicians have long recognized this important concept. When trying to achieve changes in the health care system, they raise lack of access and high costs of health care as an issue, but then tell the story about specific people who did not get the help they needed and were fatally injured as a result; a story with which members of the audience can identify with. Corporate sales people use the same strategy; they don’t focus on the benefits of time, cost, and convenience as factual issues, but rather, they translate them into the benefits that the buyers will individually experience — the ability to do their job faster, with fewer errors, and more powerfully so they achieve their goals.

Take a look at our presentation, and ask yourself: does it translate the facts and figures into concrete insights and benefits that the audience can immediately appreciate will make his/her life better? It’s not easy to do at one sitting; you need to grasp the concept, step away, and then come back and make it human. What’s your experience? Share it with us.

Want to learn how to deliver powerful presentations? Attend our workshop and blow away your audience in your next presentation.

Want me to speak at your next event? Email me at: Jerry.Cahn@PresentationExcellence.com

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