Are we going to philosophise everything? To the casual eye, there appear to be topics immune to interesting philosophical investigation. I have recently been persuaded that, at the very least, this is far from true about travel. Listening to an episode of Jay Shapiro’s Dilemma podcast called “The Meaning of Travel” in which this was discussed with the author of the nominal book; Emily Thomas; was enough to inveigle me to the richness there.
Read moreThe Elaboration Likelihood Model
This theory states that there are two paths through which a person's mind can be changed. There is the harder route which requires evidence, reason, and extended exposure to opposing evidence - elaboration.
Then there is the far easier route which only require that certain cues be present when presented with the opinion. The cues influence the likelihood in the subject's mind that the opinion is worth adopting and are usually things which makes the source of the information more attractive to the subject.
Recently an overpowering cue has become people's group signalling which informs the members of the group which beliefs are to be adopted - these tribal cues can overpower the more traditional cues, such as expertise.