Ebook: How Minds Change The New Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion.

As the world is increasingly polarised, it feels impossible to change the mind of someone with a conflicting view. But this book shows that you could be one conversation away from changing someone’s mind about something, maybe a lot of things.

Self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney sets out to discover not just what it takes to influence others, but why we believe in the first place. Along the way he meets a former Westboro Baptist Church member who was deradicalised on Twitter, goes deep canvassing to see how quickly people will surrender their character-defining views, finds a 9/11 Truther who turns his back on it all, and reveals how, within a few years, half a country can go from opposing the ‘gay agenda’ to happily attending same-sex weddings.

Distilling the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, How Minds Change reveals how beliefs take hold, not over hundreds of years, but in less than a generation, in less than a decade, and sometimes in an instant.

"In a time when too many minds seem closed, this is a masterful analysis of what it takes to open them" —Adam Grant, author of the bestselling Think Again

"Optimistic, illuminating and even inspiring" —Guardian

David McRaney is an author, journalist, and lecturer who created the You Are Not So Smart blog, books, and podcast. He began a blog writing about the psychology behind biases, delusions, and fallacies in 2009, which became a book published by Penguin/Gotham in 2011 and is now available in 14 languages. His second book, You Are Now Less Dumb, was released in July 2013. David currently hosts a podcast and writes articles that both appear at Boing Boing, and he travels around the planet giving lectures on the topics he covers in his books, blog, and podcast. His writing has been featured in the Atlantic, the New York Post, Salon, Brainpickings, Lifehacker, Gawker, Boing Boing, the Huffington Post, Big Think, and elsewhere.