Reddit Reddit reviews Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change

We found 15 Reddit comments about Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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15 Reddit comments about Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change:

u/vegansaul · 26 pointsr/vegan

I feel your passion for making change, since you directly asked for help, I would suggest channeling the passion and anger into making change. It it's slow and hard to make change but all we need to reach is the tipping point.

I suggest reading 'Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change' for scientifically researched ways of achieving social change.

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159056233X?ie=UTF8&tag=vegancom&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=159056233X

u/lnfinity · 16 pointsr/vegan

There are two separate ideas that I think are worth responding to in this post:

  1. It is great that you have that passion when it comes to animal rights. You do not want to lose this, because the only way it disappears is by becoming generally apathetic about the terrible state of the world and your inability to change it. Foster that healthy outrage you have over the terrible state of animal rights in the world to keep your level of dedication up.
  2. There is no easy answer when it comes to how to approach people. Keep up your levelheadedness and politeness when interacting with others even if they do not respond in kind. Practice is helpful as well as reading books about effective techniques for influencing others (many techniques generally used by sales-people are very relevant for our cause as well). If I had to recommend one book in this area to read it would be Change of Heart by Nick Cooney.
u/Kardinality · 9 pointsr/vegan

Been through the same. Got quite depressed because people just couldn't see the harm they were doing, or didn't care. But then someday I wondered why didn't I see the harm I was doing sooner? Why didn't I go vegan years earlier? I could have saved dozens of lives, not to mention taken better care of myself and the planet. So I dove into the currently available literature on human psychology which explained why people are so susceptible to social norms[1], why we so often can't reason ourselves out of a position were in [2] and why it is so difficult to come up with an idea like going vegan on your own [3]. After having read that I still get frustrated from time to time but much less so than first. I feel it's a bit like being angry at the earth shaking every now and then and tearing my house down. There is no one to be angry at, not really. You've just got to build a better house[4].

u/KerSan · 4 pointsr/vegan

With apologies to Nick Cooney:

>A long time environmentalist was speaking to an enthusiastic group of young environmentalists at a rally. He warned of the precarious situation the environment was in, the toll that corporate greed had taken on forests, and the dire consequences that lay ahead if serious changes were not made.

>He then shouted out to the crowd, “Are you ready to get out there and fight for the environment?”

>To which they answered an enthusiastic, “Yeah!”

>“Are you ready to get arrested and go to jail for the environment?”

>“Yeah!!”

>“Are you ready to give your life for the environment?”

>“Yeah!!!”

>“Are you willing to cut your hair and put on a suit for the environment?”

>The crowd fell silent.

>Whether this is a true story or a colorful fable, the lesson is one we should all take to heart.

u/VeganMinecraft · 3 pointsr/vegan

It helps to tell others that you were one like them, so you understand their lifestyle, however, having become aware of the ethical problems with eating meat and animal products you made a shift to more plant based way of living.

This helps to promote a more understanding approach and less of a "us against them."

Don't be afraid to give them resources where they can look for themselves. You need to make people feel like they came to conlusions on their own (based on psychology studies) and to do that, you sometimes have to simply offer the info and walk away to let them think about it. I hand out vegan outreach pamphlets, and I think it's a great way to advocate without being so confrontational and argumentative with people. Undoubtedly you can still get into arguments with people, but the key is to make THEM think about their actions, not simply tell that that they're wrong.

A famous method used by Socartes was to get people to realize that they already believe what he does, they just aren't acting on it. Most people already don't want to harm animals (or at least they don't want to be seen as a person that would, but their actions support that, and connecting them to that fact is vital)

A book you might like is "Why We love Dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows." by Melanie Joy it explains why we view different animals the way we do and how hard it can be to change people's perceptions.

A good follow up to this book is "change of heart: The psychology of spreading social change." where you can then apply psychological study implications to real world situations. The writer focuses on animal rights concerns a lot and how to get the most people engaged in this more ethical way of living. A good tip from this book is to realize that people make up rationalizations to justify their actions, rather than as we would normally think that many people make u a rational reason for doing something and then do it. If we can simply encourage more people to take the first step into eating more veg meals and it becomes more natural for them, they'd take to the reasons more heartedly.

It takes time. At one point I was like you, down, frustrated, and irritable. But when you seek for knowledge on how to become a better advocate for animals, you may get some happiness once more and more people come to you telling you they eat more veg meals or have gone vegetarian. When leafletting at my college, one girl told us that she had gotten a pamphlet last semester and then went vegan. Some people DO get it, but you have to be the connecting thread between people and the animals.

Tips for animal advocacy from Animal rights conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c6886_GXyg

u/anon85172 · 3 pointsr/vegan

Buy it here

I think any/every activist should read this book. It's basically a how-to guide for activism, all backed by scientific studies/research.

I read the book this past year, and I went back and created the outline to summarize and share the content with fellow activists.

Give it a gander, and, if you like it, please buy the book. There's a lot of content that I've left out of the outline.

u/blargh9001 · 3 pointsr/vegan

This Melanie Joy lecture should be essential viewing for all activists.

There are a lot of different philosophies to vegan activism. read up on them from Animal Liberation Front to open rescues to Gary Francione's pacifism and his loathing of single issue campaigns to Nick Cooney's psychology-informed approach. There's a lot more, and don't feel like you have to be a professor in it or 'pick a side' before you do anything, but you'll find a lot of food for thought.

Also, of course, keep learning the facts about how animals are used, the philosophies of animal rights, how the environment is affected, etc. so you can speak with confidence and answer people's questions.

Podcasts are a great way to get insights to what other activists are doing and why they are doing it. I'm currently following The Bearded Vegans, Which Side, Vegan Warrior Princesses Attack, Not Your Milk, and Our Hen House.

The best thing to do is keep looking for others, facebook is a good resource. If there's not a group started, see if you can find other vegans to start one with.

There are small things you can do, like order business cards with positive messages and links to resources to stick under the sleeves of meat packaging or in egg cartons in supermarkets.

If you can't find others around you, it's possible that if you take a strong, uncompromising stance people will come and join you. See how Anita Kranjc started the Toronto Pig Save, she would persist often standing alone or with just a couple of others, and now there are hundreds that attend. However, you must be aware of how emotionally draining (but also rewarding!) being an activist can be, even when you are surrounded by a support network. So if you go down that road, be kind and look after yourself and remember that even if you do not have support where you are, around the world there are lots of us who admire you just for taking the steps you have taken so far.

u/yo_soy_soja · 2 pointsr/vegan

Yeah, I was atheist for ~ 4-5 years during college. I'm 23 now and consider myself a nonaffiliated theist.

I grew up vaguely Christian. My father and mother had, respectively, been raised in Protestant and Catholic churches and had had issues with their practices. My brother and I were never raised in any church, but were told that God exists.

I also had a number of "spooky" experiences growing up. Ghosts. A dead great-aunt maybe visiting me before family deaths. These mainly occurred during my high school years. They make me strongly believe in some sort of afterlife. I describe them here.

In college, I grew skeptical of God -- Problem of Evil, the incompatibility of free will and "a divine plan", and whatnot. I adopted a materialistic worldview, and my spooky past experiences were essentially ignored because they couldn't be reconciled. But they humbled me and made me a bit skeptical of my own worldview.

I graduated this year in March with a BA in philosophy. I needed some sort of direction/purpose, but, after reading Change of Heart and Predictably Irrational I grew skeptical of human reasoning. And of course our senses and memories are flawed. Of all the animals in the world, from worms to cows, with all their limited perceptions of the world, why do we humans assume that we have a correct perception of the world?

I concluded that we can't have a firm, certain grasp on anything. And so my endeavor to live the best life was impossible. And my reliance on science and reasoning were shattered because humans and their reasoning are flawed.

  • Note that science is built upon theories/principles of knowledge founded in empiricism, a school of metaphysics. Science uses metaphysical and epistemological principles and applies them to the world. But science isn't capable of looking at its foundational principles. That's a job for philosophers.

  • And science makes only objective observations, not normative ones. Science can't make moral claims. It can inform morality, but it can't arrive at moral conclusions alone.

  • On top of that, we have no fucking clue what consciousness is or how it arises. The Problem of Other Minds reminds us that we can't be sure of who or what is also conscious. We just do our best to make sense of how something acts and how much its anatomy resembles ours (because I know that at least I'm conscious.)

    On top of that, as a graduate, I no longer had college professors telling me what to do. I had no clear goals in life to work towards. And so now, post-college, all the responsibility was on my shoulders to choose what to do and pursue with my life. That's a big responsibility. But how do I make decisions if I have no certain grasp on anything? I spiraled into depression.

    So I sought wisdom.

    I talked to friends and family about wisdom. I looked at the Greek philosophers who spoke of wisdom and virtue.

    I looked at all the major religions to see what wisdom they might hold. I looked for patterns between them in hopes of finding something universal that they all described.

    I also became increasingly focused on immediate sensory and intuitive knowledge as opposed to the theory and abstract nature of science and philosophy. I started reading from NDERF's archives of self-reported near-death experiences to look for patterns.

    -----

    ....

    Anywho, I've arrived at the conclusion that everyone does their best to make sense of the world. I try not to judge others. Even if they're Mormons or Scientologists or Wiccans. I have my spooky history. I've come to believe that an afterlife exists. I see what others think about the supernatural, and I see if it appeals to me. I think Sikhism is pretty reasonable and beautiful, and I think my attachment to the afterlife belief almost obligates me to believe in a higher power. Sikhs seek to create and maintain chardi kala, a happiness in life by being content and thankful, which greatly appeals to me. But Sikhism does have a fair bit of ritual (albeit with legitimate purpose) and some guru praise which, given my history, seems a bit too much of a commitment.

    What I can say with some certainty is that it's good to live a life of virtue. It is good and feels good to help others. It's good to enjoy life and not take it for granted. Everyday, I consciously make an effort to be virtuous and to be thankful for my blessings. Veganism and activism are obvious applications of virtue and helping others. If God exists, I thank It everyday for all the good I experience. I thank it for the beauty in the world. As flawed as the world is, it's certainly more wonderful than horrible.
u/fatdog1111 · 2 pointsr/vegan

> Insults, shame, aggressiveness are excellent tools for moving people closer to 100.

How I wish that were true! Nick Cooney, an esteemed animal rights advocate, wrote a whole book about what actually does work. It's called Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change.

Animal rights advocate and psychologist Melanie Joy has several YouTube videos about effective advocacy as well. This is a well-researched area. If we were planting seeds by being angry, insulting and shaming people, it would be a lot easier.

u/chrisoffner3d_ · 2 pointsr/samharris

The question is what you prioritise:

  1. Is it more important for you to be able to speak the truth in any manner you wish at anyone?
  2. Is it more important to get other people to share your views?

    If there's one thing I've learned from many years of vegan activism it's that it does not matter how correct or scientific your statements of fact are - if someone has adopted behaviours or beliefs that go counter to those facts as part of their personal identity, they will find ways to reject those notions. And that is not just Muslims, and not just religious people. That's even scientists.

    From behavioural economics to psychology - anyone who studied the human mind in a behavioural context (as opposed to a primarily atomic/physical neurological context) will attest to you that people, all people!, are utterly irrational creatures.

    Good and effective activism acknowledges this irrationality and elegantly works around it. A recommended read here is
    Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change


    I wish everyone would read and adhere to the short essay Keep Your Identity Small by Paul Graham. But as long as people are attached to X or Y as part of their identity, they will remain highly biased and irrational about those things.
u/c-r-u-x · 1 pointr/minimalism

I'm not sure where would be the best place to hang out if you want to avoid those kinds of people. I'm currently reading Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change and it's really crazy and unsettling to see what the psychological and neurological research shows about our ability and likelihood to take in and rationally examine information that goes against our held beliefs.

u/nektar · 1 pointr/vegan

Green is the new Red Is a great book about animal rights activism.

Change of Heart Is a great book about the psychology of spreading social change.

Edit: I'd also recommend watching Cowspiracy and Specisism: The Movie.

u/panpsych · 1 pointr/vegan

Also check out Nick's other book, Veganomics. It is also very informative. Change of Heart is a bit broader in its focus on how activists with various causes can use psychology to better influence people, whereas Veganomics was written with the intention of giving animal advocates insight into what kind of people go vegan/vegetarian, why some people give up, etc., all with the larger goal of helping to formulate better messages and guides to help people cut back/cut out animal product consumption and maintain this for life.

u/socalgreengal · 1 pointr/ZeroWaste