Product Description

Think about the last time you tried to change someone’s mind about something important: a voter’s political beliefs; a customer’s favorite brand; a spouse’s decorating taste. Chances are you weren’t successful in shifting that person’s beliefs in any way. In his book, Changing Minds, Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner explains what happens during the course of changing a mind – and offers ways to influence that process.

Remember that we don’t change our minds overnight, it happens in gradual stages that can be powerfully influenced along the way.This book provides insights that can broaden our horizons and shape our lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14308 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Gardner, a psychologist and professor at Harvard, examines the factors involved in changing minds on significant issues, in politics, science, business and art. He identifies seven key elements, including reason, research and real world events, that are part of the decision-making process. Certain facets are more heavily weighted in some fields than others: "leaders of large groups often rely on the appreciable resources at their disposal but are buoyed or undercut by real world events," says Gardner (Frames of Mind), who believes this explains why a politician or a CEO will disregard advice in the face of larger issues and popular perceptions. To prove his theories, Gardner analyzes the behavior of several individuals including President Bush, Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, and South Africa's Nelson Mandela. Gardner doesn't limit his examination to politicians because he also believes that artists, writers, musicians and teachers can change people's minds. While the discussions and real-life examples are intriguing and do clarify Gardner's theories, the book doesn't fully deliver on its promise. Although Gardner does offer suggestions on how someone can influence others, he doesn't include a detailed prescriptive strategy for decision makers in the business world. Readers must draw out insights on their own, which, given the complexity of the material, may be difficult.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Gardner's subtle, intelligent analysis of our mercurial mental processes is a master class in the art and science of persuasion. -- The Guardian, October 28, 2006

From the Inside Flap
What Does It Take to Change a Mind?

Think about the last time you tried to change someone’s mind about something important: a voter’s political beliefs; a customer’s favorite brand; a spouse’s decorating taste; a teenager’s attitude toward schoolwork. Chances are you weren’t successful in shifting that person’s beliefs in a significant way. For an endeavor so commonly mentioned and frequently attempted, why is the phenomenon of changing minds so mysterious? How do people become set on a certain way of thinking? And what, exactly, does it take to change that perspective?

In this groundbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner offers surprising insights on this fascinating puzzle—insights that could change the way we interact with others at work, at home, and in every aspect of our lives. Gardner, whose work over the last thirty years has revolutionized our thinking about intelligence, creativity, and leadership, now suggests that traditional thinking about mind change as a sudden "epiphany" is entirely wrong. Instead, Gardner shows, we change our minds gradually, in identifiable ways that can be actively and powerfully influenced.

Drawing on decades of cognitive research, Gardner identifies seven levers that aid or thwart the process of mind change, including reason, research, real-world events, and resistances. Changing Minds provides an original framework—illustrated with famous and ordinary examples of "change agents" in politics, business, science, the arts, and everyday life—that shows how individuals can align these levers to bring about significant changes in perspective and behavior. From Margaret Thatcher’s reorientation of Great Britain to Sir John Browne’s transformation of BP to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary revolution to interactions between spouses or friends to decisions to change one’s own mind, Gardner uncovers surprising similarities and instructive differences among the factors that affect mind change in a variety of settings.

Demystifying a phenomenon that permeates human behavior, Changing Minds provides insights that can broaden our horizons and improve our lives.

Customer Reviews

Science of Persuasion
This is one of my favorite books on persuasion and psychology of changing other people's (as well as your own) mind.

It provides good frameworks for understanding how and why people change their views on a matter. The tools and understanding of decision making contained in the book are a good reference for understanding the psychology of persuasion which could be useful in any type of negotiation, from one on one negotiation to complex multi-party negotiation. I highly recommend this book.

It is excellent and an easy read - but more importantly - it's ideas are readily applicable and useful in your everday life and understanding of complex behavior.

Limited examples, has little respect for the changee
I agree with many of the unenthusiastic reviews. The book could be much shorter and more effective if the author and editors had cut some of plentiful Harvard family stories. A few more peeves, as well. The author tries to be both a pundit (a word he uses too many times) and just 'ordinary folk'. He's trying to charm you with his folksiness and wonder with the world, and simultaneously wow you with his immense knowledge and insight. I'd rather he simply gave me information. The book seems targeted at people in business (it's published by the Harvard business school) who apparently can only remember things if they rhyme or all start with the same letters, (in this case "re-") like some slogan for a car commercial. Snippets of talk of 'integrity' are thrown in, to compensate for the condescension he seems to have for whoever's mind you're trying to change. One 'piece of advice' is to 'establish common links...In addition to their both being professors and intellectuals, Summers might have emphasized that he and West were the same age...' Good grief! I would hope that 'ordinary folk' (which I assume means non-professors and non-intellectuals) don't fall for such shallow tactics. Some style issues, which may or may not bother you: he has pet words, like 'amalgam' and 'pundit', which are used on every other page. The text in the paperback edition is a bit small, as if they just shrank the hardback pages, instead of re-typesetting the book.

Some useful ideas, but I recommend browsing the appendix, in your library first. Or you can have my copy. :-)

Don't waste your money or time
I see other comments that are similar to my opinion. I thought this book was a total waste of time. Self-indulgent, rambling ideas that seemed there only to demonstrate how much the author believes he is brilliant. I can't believe he has so many books and university endorsements. It is rare for me to dislike a book, but this one made me angry. I read the entire thing, so I gave it a fair chance. As a busy consultant, I don't have time to lose on things like this.