The Biden Ad We Need Now
The Biden Campaign and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Must Make it Psychologically Safe for Trump Voters to Switch Sides: understanding the role that cognitive dissonance plays is key.
Like many others, I’ve found it stunning that roughly 40 percent of American voters continue to support President Trump despite all his obvious flaws. Many wonder, how could even one voter still support Trump?
And then I remembered something I learned while picking up my Behavioral Sciences degree some 40 years ago. The key is understanding the role of cognitive dissonance when it comes to making and changing a decision. With apologies to my psychology professors, here it is in a nutshell:
When a person is confronted with evidence that they are wrong about something they tend to disregard that information, push it away, try to explain it, etc. because if they accept the new information as fact they are forced to admit to others, but more importantly, to themselves that they were fooled. To be fooled is to be a fool. No one wants to think themself a fool. So instead, we all automatically defend our previous positions sometimes even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
So, when the Biden campaign, including the legions of devoted supporters now working phone banks and writing letters, ask a Trump supporter to switch…
