When Facts Don't Change Opinions: The Backfire Effect

You may be right. But that doesn't mean the other person will change his mind.

Thanks to this cognitive bias: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁.

💡 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮:

Showing people evidence that they are wrong is often ineffective.

It can backfire, making them to support their original stance even stronger.

Trigger their emotions -

and they won't admit that they were wrong.

🔑 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

When someone disagrees -

Don't bring more data.

Don't be too eager.

Instead, be subtle.

Ask a question and let the other person arrive at the same conclusion.

As a personal example:

Your marketing colleague is convinced that one of the web pages performs well, with a solid conversion rate.

Instead of directly showing data how poorly it performs, ask a few questions:

1. According to you, what should the conversion rate be?

2. What do you think is the average conversion rate in our industry?

3. What are other relevant KPIs to track the performance?

Think about this quote from Aristotle:

"The fool tells me his reasons, the wise man persuades me with my own.”