What actually makes someone change their mind?

Research in behavioral science, psychology, negotiation, and decision-making suggests that facts alone are rarely enough. People are more likely to reconsider a belief when they feel heard, trust the messenger, become curious rather than defensive, or discover that an existing belief no longer fits their experience.

That matters far beyond an argument.

Leaders need employees to embrace new strategies. Salespeople need customers to reconsider assumptions. Negotiators need the other side to move. And all of us increasingly navigate disagreement in a world where misinformation, polarization, and AI-generated content can make shared understanding harder.

So how do people actually change their minds?

What Makes Someone Change Their Mind?

There is no single formula for persuasion. But several forces can make people more open to reconsidering what they believe:

• Feeling understood: People become less defensive when their perspective has genuinely been heard.
• Trust: Who delivers information can matter almost as much as the information itself.
• Psychological safety: Changing an opinion is easier when it does not feel like humiliation or defeat.
• Curiosity: Questions can create more openness than confrontation.
• Choice architecture: Sometimes changing behavior is easier than changing belief.
• Identity: People defend beliefs connected to community and their sense of self.
• Narrative: A compelling story can be harder to replace than an individual fact.

HWA speakers working across behavioral science, economics, negotiation, journalism, politics, and law offer different ways to understand these forces.

Why Don't Facts Change People's Minds?

Science journalist and bestselling author DAVID MCRANEY has made this question central to his work. In How Minds Change, he explores why deeply held views can sometimes shift and challenges the assumption that people who believe something incorrect simply need better information.

Facts matter. But people interpret them through existing beliefs, relationships, experiences, and identities.

Harvard political philosopher MICHAEL SANDEL helps explain another layer: disagreements that appear to be about facts are often also disagreements about values, fairness, and responsibility.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist CHARLES DUHIGG, meanwhile, examines what makes conversations actually work, including the importance of understanding what kind of conversation another person is trying to have.

Together, their work points toward a better question for persuasion:

Instead of asking, “How can I prove I'm right?” ask, “What would make it possible for this person to reconsider?”

Building a Culture That Performs Under Pressure

Nobel Prize-winning economist RICHARD THALER helped establish behavioral economics by showing how differently people behave from the perfectly rational decision-makers imagined by traditional economic theory. His influential work on “nudges” demonstrates how the way choices are structured can change what people actually do.

STEPHEN J. DUBNER, co-author of Freakonomics, similarly examines the hidden incentives behind behavior, while behavioral scientist LESLIE JOHN studies how communication, disclosure, and trust shape people's choices.

Together, their work introduces an important distinction between changing minds and changing behavior.

Whether encouraging employees to save for retirement, customers to adopt a new product, or teams to change a process, sometimes the better question is:

Are you trying to convince people when you could be designing a better decision?

Leading When Everyone Can See You

Former FBI lead international hostage negotiator CHRIS VOSS learned persuasion in situations where simply telling someone what to do was rarely an option. His approach emphasizes tactical empathy: understanding another person's perspective without necessarily agreeing with it.

Workplace expert KIM SCOTT applies a related principle to leadership. Her Radical Candor framework pairs direct communication with genuine care, creating conditions where difficult feedback can actually be heard.

The principle extends well beyond the negotiating table or workplace.

When people feel that someone is trying to overpower or correct them, they often become defensive. When they feel understood, that resistance can begin to soften.

Listening isn't simply what happens before persuasion. It can be part of the persuasion itself.

Why Are Stories and Misinformation So Hard to Change?

AMANDA KNOX understands the power of narrative in an unusually personal way. After spending four years in an Italian prison for a murder she did not commit, she was ultimately exonerated by Italy's highest court. Yet the public narrative surrounding her proved remarkably persistent.

Her experience illustrates a broader problem: stories can be harder to dislodge than individual facts.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist RONAN FARROW has shown how evidence must often compete with powerful institutions and established narratives. CNN Senior Correspondent DONIE O'SULLIVAN, reporting from communities shaped by conspiracy theories and misinformation, examines why false beliefs can offer not just explanations, but identity, certainty, and belonging.

That is part of what makes misinformation so difficult to correct. If a belief fulfills a social or emotional need, supplying a better fact may not be enough.

Correcting the information sometimes requires understanding the story, identity, or community built around it.

Why Does Knowing Your Audience Matter?

High-profile litigator ALEX SPIRO approaches persuasion in the courtroom, where reading people and shaping an argument for a particular audience can determine the outcome.

But the same principle appears in politics and public life.

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and former presidential speechwriter PEGGY NOONAN understands how language can make an idea resonate beyond the people already inclined to agree with it. VAN JONES has spent years communicating across ideological divides, while former HUD Secretary JULIÁN CASTRO brings the perspective of a public leader communicating complex policies to audiences with very different priorities and experiences.

The lesson applies to a jury, boardroom, customer, employee, voter, or negotiating partner:

The same argument will not persuade every audience.

Effective persuasion requires understanding what people already believe, what they are skeptical of, which information they trust, and what will make them stop listening.

The Goal Isn't to Win the Argument

Across behavioral science, economics, negotiation, journalism, politics, and law, a common idea emerges: changing someone's mind is rarely about finding the perfect argument.

People are more willing to reconsider when they feel understood, when curiosity replaces defensiveness, and when new information does not require them to abandon their identity or admit defeat. Sometimes the most effective form of influence is not convincing someone at all, but changing the conditions around the decision.

The better question may not be How do I convince this person I'm right?

It may be What would make them willing to think about this differently?

Continue the Conversation

Understanding how people think and make decisions can transform the way organizations approach leadership, communication, negotiation, and change.