“People confuse their current level of understanding with their peak knowledge,” Prof Matthew Fisher of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, says. For this reason, a simple but powerful way of deflating someone’s argument is to ask for more detail. Consider the following experiment by Prof Brendan Nyhan of the University of Michigan and Prof Jason Reifler of the University of Exeter. Someone’s political affiliation will never completely define them, after all. Photograph: Richard B Levine/AlamyThis is only one way to increase someone’s psychological distance, and there are many others.

Source: The Guardian June 30, 2019 09:00 UTC