Way In
If in doubt, shout
Are the most driven evangelists those who are most certain of
what they believe, or most uncertain? New research investigates how
having our beliefs undermined can make us more determined to
convince others.
The starting point is the 1950s work of Leon Festinger, who
infiltrated a non-proselytizing UFO cult which believed the world
would end on 21 December 1954. When it failed to do so, they
decided they had saved the world and became fervently
evangelistic.
'If more and more people can be persuaded the belief is
correct,' explained Festinger, 'then clearly, it must after all be
correct'.
Now for the first time Festinger's theory has been clinically
tested, by David Gal and Derek Rucker of Northwestern University,
Illinois. They used standard ways of inducing doubt in volunteers
- getting them to recall times when they felt plagued with doubt,
and asking them to write with the wrong hand.
They asked them to write about their opinions on vegetarianism,
or animal testing, or whether Macs are better than PCs. They
found, as expected, that those made to feel self-doubt wrote at
greater length and spent more time on it than others.
But they also found that the effect only worked if they felt
they were talking to someone receptive, and was annulled if their
sense of identity was bolstered by talking about their favourite
books.
Gal and Rucker's 'If In Doubt, Shout' was published in
Psychological Science for November.