“Quite simply the best question I have ever been asked.” That was social psychologist and author Jon Haidt's verdict on the question at the heart of openDemocracy’s long-running podcast, Changed My Mind.
Often, when we put the question to our guests, they show signs of anxiety or play for time with flattery, like Haidt. Even though we give it to them in advance.
But after the umms and ahs can come moments of great clarity and phenomenal discussion. For former Al Qaeda operative turned Mi5 spy Aimen Dean, it was the moment he decided to leave the terror group; for Jon, it was when he realised school tests can still matter. We uncover that what changes people’s minds isn’t always what activists think – and that taking a purist stance can backfire.
From Adrianne Black, who left the white nationalist movement, to Ed Owen, the senior government adviser who changed his mind over the war in Iraq, or Peter Gabriel, who lost his faith in the power of technology to enable democracy; since 2018, we’ve talked to dozens of leading thinkers, journalists, academics, practitioners, activists and politicians.
Hosted by business leader Laura Osborne, behavioural scientist Alex Chesterfield and activist-turned-lecturer Ali Goldsworthy, the series spawned the best-selling book Poles Apart. If you want to check out the science that underpins why changing your mind is so hard, a free chapter of the book is available to read on openDemocracy. And for the time being, the hosts are also offering office hours to activists struggling to get their head around the science.
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