{"id":235,"date":"2010-10-29T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T22:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2010\/10\/when-in-doubt-preach.html"},"modified":"2010-10-29T22:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T22:45:00","slug":"when-in-doubt-preach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2010\/10\/when-in-doubt-preach.html","title":{"rendered":"When in doubt, preach!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Recent years have seen an extraordinary phenomenom. A modern-day cult is spreading rapidly across the globe, advancing from its US homeland on the back of a small army of evangelical preachers. People of all backgrounds, but particularly the young and the wealthy, are recruited to its ranks \u2013 only to become in turn preachers themselves.<\/p>\n

I am talking, of course, of the Cult of Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what inducers cult members to preach their gospel? New research by David Gal and Derek Rucker, at the Kellog School of Management at Northwestern University, suggests that shaking a person\u2019s confidence actually can make them more likely to go out and preach.<\/p>\n

They took 106 undergraduate Mac users, all of whom believed that Macs were superior to Windows-based PCs, and put half of them in a state of trepidation by asking them to write about a situation in which they felt uncertain. The other half wrote about a situation in which they felt certain.<\/p>\n

Then they were asked to imagine that they were talking to a Windows-user who was happy with his or her PC. Half had to imagine a conversation with a Windows-user who was open to the idea of switching, and half to a Windows-user who was closed-minded.<\/p>\n

How likely would they be to try to persuade the Windows user to switch to a Mac? Well, it turned out that it depended both on their own state of mind, and on whether the target was open to persuasion.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

As the graph shows, compared with confident individuals, those in a doubtful frame of mind would be slightly less likely to try to persuade a close-minded person. But they would be much more likely to try to persuade an open-minded person.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t a one off, either. They did another experiment which showed that students would spend much longer composing a persuasive message to convert someone to their own dietary habits (carnivorous, vegetarian, vegan) if they were feeling doubtful. They got a similar result after asking students to write about their views on animal experiments.<\/p>\n

The authors link this effect to the classic study by Leon Festinger, who infiltrated an apocalyptic cult back in the 1950s. When the end-time predictions of the cult leader failed, the previously-secretive cult members responded by turning to active advocacy and proselytisation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the case of George Alan Rekers, a prominent homophobic campaigner who recently was revealed to have hired a rent boy.<\/p>\n

Gal and Recker reckon that doubt about closely held attitudes and beliefs can adversely affect your view of yourself. Cult members whose faith has taken a hit proselytise as a way to resolve their own doubt, and thus restore their self-image. And they finish with a warning:<\/p>\n

Finally, the present research also offers a warning to anyone on the receiving end of an advocacy attempt. Although it is natural to assume that a persistent and enthusiastic advocate of a belief is brimming with confidence, the advocacy might in fact signal that the individual is boiling over with doubt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"ResearchBlogging.org\"<\/a><\/span>Gal, D., & Rucker, D. (2010). When in Doubt, Shout!: Paradoxical Influences of Doubt on Proselytizing Psychological Science<\/span> DOI: 10.1177\/0956797610385953<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/span> This article by Tom Rees<\/b> was first published on Epiphenom<\/a>. It is licensed under Creative Commons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent years have seen an extraordinary phenomenom. A modern-day cult is spreading rapidly across the globe, advancing from its US homeland on the back of a small army of evangelical preachers. People of all backgrounds, but particularly the young and the wealthy, are recruited to its ranks \u2013 only to become in turn preachers themselves. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen in doubt, preach!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recent years have seen an extraordinary phenomenom. 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