‘Persuasion Fatigue’ Is a Unique Form of Social Frustration

We are about to enter the holiday season. Many of us are prepared for debates. Arguments with other people are an invitation to exasperation in an era of social unrest.

There is one common scene. You want to convince a friend or family member that you're right about something, so you give them information and explain. Your case was rejected. You brush up on the issue and try again, hoping that more facts will change the other person's mind. You might repeat yourself louder and slower. Your audience doesn't seem to be moved.

How do you respond when you don't get what you want? The person who doesn't heed your arguments might be dismissed as out of touch with reality. Your logic is irresistible. You may stop talking about that issue. You might consider cutting ties. Social estrangement and parent-child separations can be caused by unresolved debates.

It might feel like trying to guide someone on a journey when they don't follow. You made a map for them, but they wander off in the wrong direction. This form of frustration is called persuasion fatigue.

The consequences of this experience are being investigated. The findings suggest that persuasion fatigue is widespread. 98% of people who took part in recent studies in the U.S. had experienced this fatigue, caused by discussions of topics such as politics, religion and health. According to our work, most people think debates are pointless because the other person is at fault.

We hope our data will answer important questions about this phenomenon. There is a noticeable pattern emerging. It's possible that persuasion fatigue makes it harder to navigate conversations.

Feelings of frustration can make you more resistant to change. It may make it harder for you to recognize why your arguments don't work. If you're feeling burned-out, you may not know how to get your point across better. People tend to blame their opponent when a debate breaks down. In all matters of opinion our adversaries are crazy. People tend to report three times as many reasons why others failed as they do their own.

It's true that other people don't always agree with your ideas. In an overheated debate, your fatigue can lead you to believe that your opponent is too dim or delusional to see the truth. You are likely to contribute to frustrating debates. Sometimes it's not them, but you. Research shows that some sound approaches can be used to protect your relationships.

When you begin to feel tired, identify it. Over the past 10 years, psychologists and neuroscientists have found that labeling emotional experiences helps people manage their feelings. This practice can help people regulate their emotions even when they think it won't work. If you acknowledge your persuasion fatigue, you can ask yourself why a discussion has stopped. It may be possible to consider the sources of fatigue more self-critically. Maybe your argument isn't strong. The holiday dinner table may not be the right place to discuss politics or religion. When your aunt says, "Don't talk to me before I've had my coffee," maybe you should listen to her.

It's easy to be too ambitious in debate. Small steps of agreement on premises and assumptions are needed for a persuasive argument. Backtrack to the ideas that preceded and supported each assertion if someone won't buy your argument. If you can help your in-laws understand the science behind modern vaccine programs, they may be more willing to get a shot in the future.

Values and feelings are related to thinking. It's hard to grasp how someone else thinks if you don't feel what they're feeling. One of us has studied moral empathy gaps, in which people think those who do not share their moral opinions have less intelligence, bad intentions or both. Cultural and political differences can be widened by these misperceptions. In two studies of vaccine hesitancy, researchers found that parents were more concerned with issues of liberty and purity than with the safety of their children. Traditional vaccine messaging may not be in line with what vaccine-hesitant people like to hear.

It's important to convey your message in terms of your audience's values, not yours. The moral reframing is called by psychologists. The persuasiveness of your message has been shown to increase when you wrap it in your audience's values. Even if you don't agree with their values, affirming them may lead them to lower their defenses and open up new arguments. It takes a lot of effort to reach outside of your value system when you present ideas.

Think or assume that the debate is a zero-sum struggle and you will win if you lose. It is better to see an argument as a collaborative effort to find the truth than it is to see it as a fight between two people. The map shows terrain from many different angles. It is possible to triangulate a view between your perspective and another person's. Do I know everything there is to know or can the other person tell me something new?

It is possible to make your arguments more persuasive by examining your own role in the debate. When it comes to cutting someone out of their life, 28 percent of people cite persuasion fatigue as the reason. Many of the splits were justified and others could have been avoided.

There are consequences to the tendency to blame others. When our frustration stems from a deep desire to connect, we may neglect to notice. We may be able to pass through social terrain without leaving our loved ones behind.