Brian Fitzgerald, director and chief treehugger, Dancing Fox Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Tommy Crawford @TheEcoWarrior
Brian Fitzgerald @Brianfit
The Power of StoryLondon, June 2016
#Story4Change

3. What we’ll explore today…
3 Activist Communication Traps from Behavioural Economics
10 ways to avoid them
1 Story Methodology

5. Why are facts not winning?
3 traps from Behavioural Economics

6. Example 1:
The Backfire Effect

7. Example 2:
Three legged tables

8. Example 3:
Descriptive Norm
Example 3:
Descriptive Norm

9. The Descriptive Norm in action…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHraRY19pNM

10. Your brain is less like this

11. …and more like this.

12. WHY?

14. WHY?
Climate Deniers aren’t the only
ones who resist facts.

15. “The facts are so clear, Brexit will clearly
not win a majority referendum.”
~
“The facts are so clear, Donald Trump
can’t possibly win.”

16. In fact, we ALL do it.

17. We have an
“Irrational emotional attachment to
rationality.”

18. In fact, this presentation is a
fact-based effort to try to persuade you.

19. I’m doomed.

20. Ways to
Avoid these
traps

21. Abandon the
“Information
deficit model”
✴ Presenting the facts in a new report is not
going to win your campaign on its own

22. Focus on the
“undecideds”,
not the sceptics

23. Team up with someone
who disagrees with
you in a joint attempt
to solve a mystery

24. Adjust your framing
& vocabulary to avoid
triggers*
✴ “Environment” is a dirty word for conservatives. Looking
to stop fracking, talk about the “Sanctity of the land.”

25. Change behaviour
to change opinion,
not the other
way around

26. Make someone feel
GREAT about their
other values. Take
Identity off the table

27. Make the behaviour
change you seek
seem common and
widespread

28. Don’t overkill.
If one fact is enough, two
might completely
undermine your case
✴ I’m really sorry I didn’t make it to your party. I
was sick. And I had a flat tire

29. Replace the table leg
you are taking away

30. Don’t use fact at all.
Avoid talking to the
head. Talk to the heart.
Trigger someone’s
values with STORY

31. Stories are the Foundations of
Large Scale Human Society

32. Stories help us live together.

33. Stories help us survive.

34. Stories provide meaning

35. Stories help us organise and cooperate
in the world.

36. They shape our behaviour.

37. They shape our behaviour.

38. Stories redefine the possible.

39. And they can be hacked…

40. Activism: Changing human behaviour with the promise that a better world is possible and
creating a critical mass that turns that behaviour into a norm.

41. STORY ARCS

42. Rebellion
Rags to Riches
Quest
Voyage &
Return
Mystery
Rebirth
Comedy
Tragedy
Overcoming
the monster

43. A Universal Story Arc: Slaying the Monster

44. Jack & the Beanstalk
Impoverished Farm: Must
sell the cow
Jack
Stranger on the
road with Magic
beans Poverty
Goose that lays
golden eggs make
Jack & Mother
happy ever after

45. Bhagavad Gita
Arjuna in exile,
his land
Occupied
Arjuna heads into
battle
But casts down his
weapons.
Krishna, his charioteer,
teaches him the Yogic
way Arjuna defeats
his own self
doubts, take up
his bow
Arjuna’s duty is
fulfilled and the
Dharma
balanced

46. Star Wars / Harry Potter / Hunger Games

47. The monsters Greenpeace slay say change is impossible.

48. The monsters Greenpeace slay say change is impossible.

49. People Power is the Hero of the Greenpeace story.

50. The gift Greenpeace gives is courage

51. The role of the organisation is to be the Champion of the
Impossible, the inspiration for heroism.

52. The monsters Greenpeace slay say change is impossible.

53. Greenpeace says:
• We can change the way we feed and fuel our world.
• We can live within Earth’s limits
• Nature can be our mentor & our model
• We can redirect human ingenuity toward building a
better future
• We can find harmony despite our differences
• We can build a fairer, more sustainable world

54. The Monster says:
• Change? That’s impossible.
• It’s too expensive.
• It’s naïve.
• It’s impractical.
• It’s being proposed by people who aren’t like us.
• People who are anti-progress. Anti-jobs. Anti-science.
• People who hate our country.
• People out to overthrow our traditions & way of life.

55. The monster’s story is rooted in:
Apathy
Cynicism
Despair
Disconnection
Lack of imagination

56. The antidotes are the conditions of courage:
Hope
Connectivity
Creativity

57. A billion acts of courage can spark a
brighter tomorrow.

59. FROM SECRETIVE TO OPEN SOURCE

60. FROM LONE HERO TO HERO AMONG HEROES

61. Mapping a Story

62. THE HERO(ES)
THE BROKEN WORLD
THE GIFT(S)
THE MENTOR THE MONSTER
THE BETTER WORLD
MORAL
VALUES
Mapping a Story

63. Video at: http://bit.ly/easybakeovenchange

64. THE HERO(ES)
THE BROKEN WORLD
THE GIFT(S)
THE MENTOR THE MONSTER
THE BETTER WORLD
MORAL
VALUES
Mapping a Story
http://bit.ly/foxy-story-map

66. THE HERO(ES)
THE BROKEN WORLD
THE GIFT(S)
THE MENTOR THE MONSTER
THE BETTER WORLD
MORAL
VALUES
Mapping a Story

67. Apartheid: it was only when people in large numbers came to
believe that change was possible, that change became possible.

68. LET’S PAY MORE ATTENTION TO
THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION

69. LET’S PAY MORE ATTENTION TO
THE SCIENCE OF PERCEPTION

70. LET’S PAY MORE ATTENTION TO
THE POWER OF STORY

71. Big change looks impossible when you start, and inevitable when you finish.

72. Thank You

73. We would
love to help
you cause
some
mischief!
www.dancing-fox.com
Click! Click!

74. Sources & More:
The You Are Not So Smart Podcast
The Righteous Mind: Jonathan Haidt
The Debunking Handbook: J. Cook, S. Lewandowsky
Don’t Think of an Elephant! George Lakoff
The Political Brain: Drew Westen
Why Facts don’t Change our Minds: Elizabeth Kolbert
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
George Marshall: Don’t Even Think About It
Inspiring Sustainable Behaviour: Oliver Payne

75. Credits:
Story map concept from Jonah Sachs, Winning the Story Wars,
illustration by Drew Beam.
More on the descriptive norm, the backfire effect, and other
communications traps at http://blog.brian-fitzgerald.net