Facts Don’t Change Our Minds. Friendship Does.

Convincing someone to completely reject their prior point of view is, in reality, simply one stage in the process of winning them over to a new group's point of view. They put themselves at jeopardy of alienating their friends and family if they give up their views, which puts them in a vulnerable position. If you take away someone's community as well, you can't expect them to change their mind about anything, because they will no longer have a sense of belonging. You are responsible for deciding where they will go once they have set out on their voyage. No one wants their worldview to be challenged if it means they will be cut off from the rest of society as a result of doing so.

The most effective way to sway the perspective of another individual is to get to know them on a personal level, acknowledge them as a member of your group, and incorporate them into your inner circle of friends and family. They no longer have to worry about the social repercussions of changing their minds because they are no longer constrained by the fear of being rejected by their peers.

A British philosopher by the name of Alain de Botton suggests that rather than engaging in debate with those who have opposing viewpoints to our own, we should instead sit down to a meal with them.

"The incomparable and peculiar benefit of sharing a meal with a number of strangers is that it makes it slightly more difficult to despise those individuals without fear of repercussions," said a researcher who studied the effect of eating with strangers. Abstraction creates an environment that is ideal for the growth of prejudice and racial hatred. However, the proximity that is required for a meal – something about passing the dishes around, unfurling napkins at the same moment, or even asking a stranger to pass the salt – disrupts our ability to cling to the belief that outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or assaulted. This is because these outsiders wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents because they deserve to be sent home or assaulted. One of the most effective ways to build tolerance between suspicious neighbours is to require them to eat supper together, which is one of the many large-scale political solutions that have been proposed to stop ethnic strife.Forcing apprehensive neighbours to share a meal together is one of the few strategies that is likely to be successful in promoting tolerance between the parties involved.

It is probable that geographical remoteness, rather than cultural or religious differences, is at the heart of tribalism and hostility. The greater the proximity of two people, the greater their ability to understand one another. When you say "I don't like that man. ", I can't help but think of a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "I don't like that man." It is imperative that I devote more of my time to getting to know him.

The evidence does not persuade us to change our minds. It is due to the fact that we are friends.