When Should We Argue? | Blog of the APA
Don’t feed the trolls arguments. When someone is wrong—on the Internet or in the coffee shop—the temptation to engage can be strong, even though it often seems futile. While it can be satisfying and illuminating to argue with friends and some other people with whom we share some degree of trust, arguments with family members, acquaintances, and Internet strangers seem more often to harden positions and risk undermining the knowledge of third parties than to illuminate. Engaging may actually be more effective than it appears. Political partisans do seem to respond to argument; their response is often invisible to us because it is (perhaps rationally) often very small. Given enough evidence, even conspiracy theorists seem to be moved significantly. Argument, even argument with committed partisans, is certainly not always futile. On some topics, though, argument does seem futile. Why? One reason often given is that conspiracy theories and committed partisans often don’t hold their views for reasons. Rather, their views reflect emotional commitments or are a reflection of their identity. Argument and the exchange of …
