The power of Story - countering disinformation with storytelling

Brian Fitzgerald - Dancing Fox
Presentation from Impact Space Amsterdam 2024
For more info see https://www.impact-space.org/

1. In countering misinformation
and challenging
authoritarianism

2. The Power of Story

3. He went to the store.
George fell to the floor with a heart
attack.
That night, she went hungry, and
wept.

4. What happened…?

5. He went to the store.
George fell to the floor with a heart
attack.
That night, she went hungry, and
wept.

6. They’re actually just three
unrelated sentences. But we fill the
space between with story because…

7. We are storytelling

9. Countering Disinformation:
I. The three-legged table
trap

11. Two groups.
Each told the same story.
“Firefighters were
investigating a warehouse fire.
They believed it started in the
.”

12. Both groups were told that
later investigations revealed
that
had been ruled out, as it
.

13. When later asked “What was
the cause of the fire?” 50% of
the first group said “paint
cans.”
Even though

14. The second group was told that
the fire was actually caused by
.

15. blamed
the paint cans.

16. Principle One:
Only another story is strong
enough to counter a story

17. Case study:
Marriage Equality in the
US

18. In 2008 a ballot measure in
California called
allowing same-sex marriage
was roundly , despite
initial polls suggesting huge
support.

19. was invented
to simply find out why people
had changed their minds.
And it turned out many were
swayed by this opposition ad:

20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PgjcgqFYP4

21. Of the 687,000 California voters
who were of same-sex
marriage and then ,
500,000 were parents

22. Conservatives painted a picture
of a national designed to
and

23. Deep canvassing indicated
conflicted values:
of LGBTQ+ people to
get married, in
the classroom,
of marriage

24. Deep canvassing unwittingly
uncovered one of the most
powerful persuasion techniques:

25. Values conflict
=
Uncertainty
=
Persuadable

27. “The speed of change is inversely
proportional to the strength of our
certainty, and :
somewhere between an emotion and a
mood,
.
Persuasion, no matter the source, is a
force that affects that feeling.”

28. “All persuasion is self-persuasion”

29. The elements of the counter
narrative:
Emphasis on
are taught in the
Personal stories

30. This was the #1 most effective counter-
narrative:

31. My name is Bill Stevens. I was
that
marriage was between a man and
a woman, but I
that gay and lesbian people are
just born that way. After all, who
would choose that harder path?

32. I also know the value of my
marriage and the vows we made,
so
, too. I teach my
children not to judge others and
to practice the Golden Rule.

33. I feel confident
and legalizing gay marriage
is not going to change that, nor
does it threaten my marriage.
For all these reasons,
marriage for
gays and lesbians.

34. https://youtu.be/omsr4AHtk9g?si=TjkVc1hz6AHe3G0E

35. Commitment
.
It said the real motive wasn’t to
undermine marriage, or
indoctrinate children but to
allow gay couples to participate
in a tradition of commitment

36. X = Not True
Is as a

37. X = Not True
Fills the

38. Example:
Ivermectin is NOT a Covid cure!
It’s not approved by the FDA!

39. Example:
Invermectin
in a single
study in the Spring of 2021.
What the non-scientists who
read that study missed was
that it was
.

40. II. Countering
Disinformation:
What do the neighbours
think?

41. The greatest ally of progress,
and its greatest enemy, is the
human compulsion to

43. Imagine a box….

45. How does this desire to conform impact
belief? Let’s ask a genius!

46. GENIUS
GENIUSBetsy Levy Paluck

47. Two Villages in Rwanda

48. stirs up ethnic
violence between Hutus,
Tutsis, and Twas.

49. What if
could heal?

50. Clinical Study:
Placebos, Controls, and one
variable:

51. Result:

52. Result:
But – what they
thought everyone else in the village
thought -

53. Result:

54. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u5Ab08ioyM

55. Principle Two:
What we think “everyone
knows” shapes how we behave

56. Stories that
, not isolated, not
wrong are
.

57. The best way to turn the herd
is to
.

58. Example:
Dignity in Dying

60. We can communicate that the
herd is turning with:
Victory Stories
Conversion Stories
Polling
Target Audience Testimonials
Then vs Now stories

61. “It was only
when people in
large numbers
came to believe
that change was
possible, that
change became
possible”
— Kumi Naidoo

62. Pair up to discuss:
How can we use these
strategies to address our own
disinformation challenges?

63. Pair up to discuss:
What other strategies have you
seen work?