Go Big Read author explores how minds are changed

McRaney gestures during his keynote address in Shannon Hall. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

David McRaney, facing camera, and Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin discuss McRaney's book at Shannon Hall. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

An audience member leans forward to listen during the Go Big Read event. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin talks with David McRaney during the keynote event in Shannon Hall. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

David McRaney signs Jean Sink’s book with “Keep thinking about thinking!” during the chancellor’s reception in the Sunset Lounge at the Memorial Union. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

McRaney, right, discusses his book with several people during the Chancellor's Reception. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

From left to right, 15-year-old Jack Jedd and his mom Sarah Jedd, a UW Communication Arts instructor, pose with a copy of the Go Big Read book “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion” during the reception. Sarah Jedd said that about 1,000 students are reading the book for her class. “I’m on the Big Read book selection committee, and I always told my kids that if they read the book they can be my plus-one at the reception," Sarah Jedd said. Jack Jedd, a sophomore at Memorial High School said, “I read the book and I found the parts on deep canvassing really interesting.” Photo by: Althea Dotzour

McRaney meets Jewell Petrowitz, student assistant for the Go Big Read program, and Bethany Willig, Go Big Read program coordinator, during the Chancellor’s Reception. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

Being open to other viewpoints can be difficult, even uncomfortable, but it’s key to understanding, author David McRaney told an audience of students, faculty and community members on Tuesday.

McRaney discussed his book, “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion,” with UW–Madison Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin at the Go Big Read event at Shannon Hall.

McRaney’s book explores the ways that individuals’ minds are changed on big and small issues.

“Rationalizing and justifying is part of what human brains do, and that indicates you must be very careful about what it is that motivates my desire to rationalize and justify,” McRaney said. 

The Go Big Read program is an initiative of the Office of the Chancellor. It engages members of the campus community and beyond in a shared, academically focused reading experience.

McRaney acknowledged that the process of changing one’s mind isn’t always black and white, and often it’s uncomfortable to engage with individuals who don’t share the same viewpoint. But he challenged audience members to be open to it.

“But I can tell you it’s a very effective way to change minds,” McRaney said.

Mnookin asked McRaney how this openness might look on a college campus and how to best achieve a place of respectful dialogue.

Cultivating an environment where individuals aren’t afraid to make mistakes and are granted the liberty of progressing past those is important, McRaney said. “One of the safest safe spaces we can create on a campus is letting people be wrong,” he said.

McRaney named three key things we all should focus on.

“We all have to embrace intellectual humility, we all have to become better critical thinkers and we all have to become better at media literacy,” McRaney said.

Mnookin noted that How Minds Change is an appropriate book for the current world climate. 

“Many of us are in search of better pathways to connect with people, to create meaningful and respective spaces for dialogue,” Mnookin said. “Pathways for careful listening, for empathy, for connecting with one another, for recognizing each other’s fundamental humanity, and maybe sometimes finding pathways for changing people’s minds too.”