Belief Bubbles: How to Avoid the Worldview Backfire Effect

You have to meet people where they are in terms of what they believe and how they see the world. Otherwise your marketing not only fails, it backfires against you.

Our beliefs make us. As playwright Anton Chekhov said: 

Man is what he believes.

When we think about our beliefs, they're usually of the kind with a capital B: religion, spirituality, patriotism, and philosophy. These are no doubt important. 

But the truth is, our sense of self is essentially a bundle of beliefs about everything. In fact, it's more accurate to say that “we are belief” rather than “we believe.”

You need to not only understand your prospects’ convictions make up their worldview, but you also need to mirror that worldview back at them. But first, you might wonder, where does our bundle of beliefs come from?

Well, they're generated and maintained through a complex and generally automatic process in our brains. James Alcock, Professor of Psychology at York University, calls it “the belief engine,” which he describes like this:

The belief engine chugs away in the background, taking in information from the world outside, scrutinizing its source, checking its compatibility with existing beliefs (that's important), subjecting it at times to logical analysis, and then effortlessly generating new beliefs and maintaining or modifying old ones. Most often this occurs without the awareness of the operator, and that means you and me.

So, yes, we generate new beliefs, but it's in the context of our existing convictions and perspectives, not in direct contravention of those beliefs. And that's true except for in the rarest of cases.

In other words, trying to change minds can absolutely crush your marketing efforts. Fortunately, social psychology tells you which cognitive mechanisms to avoid with your messages.

This is not to say that older people are especially “set in their ways” or “can’t learn new things.” It means all people see the world in a particular way, and if you operate outside of that you’ll find it incredibly difficult to persuade them, even if it’s to their benefit.

Can’t Stop Believin’

Let's look at three primary ways people resist changing their beliefs, all backed by social psychology research. These cognitive mechanisms not only make it difficult – if not impossible – to change someone’s mind when it comes to firmly held beliefs, but they can cause your efforts to backfire spectacularly.

1. Cognitive Dissonance

First up is cognitive dissonance, which happens when you hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time. Dissonance can occur when you behave in a way that is contrary to your beliefs, and also when you’re confronted with information that challenges a belief you hold – especially when that conviction rises to the level of a value.

Cognitive dissonance creates mental discomfort, but the preferred cure is almost never to change the existing belief. Instead, people rationalize their behavior or the new information to reconcile it with what they already believe.

This rationalization process can work in your favor as a marketer, but only if you mirror the underlying value and help dissipate the dissonance. For example, people who love animals often have strong conflicting emotions over their concurrent love of cheeseburgers. So they buy products that treat animals humanely – such as cage-free eggs, grass-fed meat, and cruelty-free makeup that is not tested on animals – all to make their dietary choices acceptable.

On the other hand, if you attack the underlying belief itself, good luck. The ability to rationalize away new factual information to preserve a conviction is amazingly strong. University of Minnesota social psychologist Leon Festinger did the first pioneering study on cognitive dissonance in a truly incredible scenario:

Dorothy Martin had persuaded a group of people that a flood would destroy the world on Dec. 21, 1954. She also prophesized that her followers had nothing to worry about. Friendly aliens would arrive just before the flood with a flying saucer and rescue them.

Professor Festinger infiltrated the group and was able to give a first-hand account of what happened next. As you might have guessed, there was no flood or flying saucer. So Martin told her followers that the aliens had spared the earth from destruction because of their faith.

The group not only bought that explanation (i.e., rationalization), but the cult grew stronger in their convictions and larger in membership. And why not, when as far as they were concerned, it was their strong belief in the first place that had averted tragedy?

It’s an extreme example, for sure. But we all experience cognitive dissonance to some degree, and there's ample evidence that even in less extreme circumstances, we will seek to preserve our existing beliefs before accepting that we are wrong.

2. Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is a term that you’ve likely heard a lot about in the last several years. Although the term was coined in 1977, the concept dates back centuries. It means we seek out information that supports what we already believe and reject or ignore information that conflicts with existing beliefs.

Confirmation bias can be extremely frustrating to naive marketers who don’t account for it. While cognitive dissonance causes people to rationalize away your arguments, confirmation bias causes your messages to be ignored altogether.

That’s why smart advocates first identify the overlap between what the target audience already believes and the new evidence or persuasive argument they’re offering. This graphic from Simply Psychology does a good job of visualizing the sweet spot:

Of course, the more you come from a congruent worldview to begin with, the easier your job becomes. Great marketing is hard enough without beating your head against powerful cognitive barriers.

The earliest social psychology experiment that demonstrated confirmation bias took place in 1960. Test subjects were told they had to find a rule within a set of numbers they would be given. But first, they had to develop a hypothesis about what that rule would be.

The result? A remarkable number of people could not successfully find the rule because they spent all their time trying to prove their own hypothesis. In other words, their bias for what they already believed kept them from seeing an obvious solution that conflicted with that belief.

There’s good reason to think that confirmation bias has increased in the last 15 years. Social media filter bubbles and even how someone phrases a Google search all make confirmation bias more prevalent, accessible, and reinforcing. That makes it even more essential to understand how to connect with people on the common ground of existing beliefs. 

As belief-driven creatures, we all suffer from confirmation bias to some degree. Those who are most immune are people who are self-aware enough to know they have biases and then actively choose to resist them. Unfortunately, many people lack self-awareness, and others don’t even know what confirmation bias is in the first place.

3. Social Conformity

Finally, we've got social conformity, which is especially relevant when building online audiences. In social psychological terms, conformity refers to our tendency to embrace the beliefs and follow the rules or behaviors of the various social groups we belong to.

Back in the 1950s, psychologist Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments to measure social conformity. The twist was that other than the unaware study participants, the other people in the research group were Asche’s accomplices who intentionally gave obviously wrong answers. 

The study found that 75% of the real participants gave the wrong answer to conform to the rest of the group. Most people would say that they’re non-conformists and would stand up to a group of people when they’re wrong, but the research suggests that people are generally much more likely to conform than they believe they would.

We look to others to determine how to behave in ambiguous situations, such as the Asch experiment. This is generally known as social proof, which you’re likely familiar with. A much more powerful social influence is the desire to belong, which is a fundamental human need.

Belonging is about group beliefs that inform personal identity, so trying to change or refute beliefs at this level is especially perilous. As we’ll see in a future lesson, once unifying beliefs are at play, even social proof becomes tribal.

Avoiding a Marketing Backfire

While we hear a lot about social media bubbles these days, the truth is belief bubbles exist whenever people are involved. Technology doesn’t change human nature; it amplifies it.

The point is simple: You have to meet people where they are in terms of what they believe and how they see the world. You're not trying to change minds – not only because it’s likely an exercise in futility but because the mere attempt to change someone's mind can reinforce what they already believe.

This phenomenon is known as belief perseverance. When you give people information that challenges their current beliefs, they don't carefully consider your argument and then change their minds. Instead, people become more convinced that they are right and people like you are wrong – even if you’re factually correct.

That’s not exactly rational, right? True, but the idea that human beings are “rational actors” is what’s not true. We’re emotional creatures who rationalize the emotive decisions we’ve already decided to pursue.

It’s no coincidence that in its broadest application, belief perseverance is also known as the “Worldview Backfire Effect.” This is exactly why we want our messages to match up with, rather than refute, the worldviews of our intended prospects. 

Spending time and money on marketing that challenges existing beliefs makes no sense when faced with formidable cognitive biases that cause people to reject you and your messages. When a person encounters information that essentially tells them they're wrong, it threatens their worldview and, therefore, their very identity. 

The result is a flood of negative emotions, mostly about you. This is the exact opposite type of emotional stimulation you want for effective marketing and audience engagement.

Now for the Cool Part…

Yes, we explored belief a lot. That’s because it’s vitally important to understand how to make an initial approach toward your prospects to ensure you have the ability to connect and engage in the first place.

Once you get that right, you can start doing the cool stuff:

• You can introduce new ideas to your prospects that are embraced. 

• You can influence their attitudes toward you and in the key areas that matter. 

• And you can prompt purchasing decisions for items they never knew they wanted.

But first, we need to understand how beliefs influence behavior:

• What makes a value a different kind of belief?

• What are attitudes, and how do they arise?

• What does the role of belonging play in this?

More soon!