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Take the Bypass


Temptation. Upon encountering inaccuracies, falsehoods or simple misinformation it can be so tempting to rise up with our knowledge and challenge the misinformed speaker, telling them that they are wrong, misguided, misled.


But who among us responds well to such corrections? Direct confrontations seldom lead to the desired change of position or opinion. It is human nature to dig in one’s heels and defend our initial point of view when feeling threatened.


And there is another approach that can be tried—one can bypass the misinformation while providing countering information with a more accurate tenor. Almost any topic may be open to multiple perspectives and have many aspects. When a speaker is negative and mis- or even dis-informed in your view, can you identify a positive and supported aspect of the same topic?


Social scientists have studied this approach, creating groups of test subjects holding certain positions and offering some a direct correction and others a softer, bypass of additional information, supporting an alternative view on the topic. One topic used in the research was GMO foods. Some people associate GMO foods with more allergies and other health issues. Instead of simply refuting this fear with data, they tried bypassing it with information about GMO foods helping to alleviate hunger, and with positive impacts on insect populations. Bypassing was as effective as direct correction of misinformation with less risk of merely hardening someone’s negative belief. When you want to inform and maintain an ongoing productive relationship, bypassing is particularly useful. This strategy also seems to fit well with the guidelines of programs like Braver Angels.

 

However, it isn’t always easy to decide what information would truly be a bypass.

 

During the pandemic I was often struck by the anger of people who didn’t want to be required to get the Covid vaccine when it was developed. I was thrilled with the speed with which the scientists succeeded in developing the vaccine. Not all were. They felt coerced. I am old enough to remember, if somewhat dimly, the panic that polio outbreaks caused in the 1950s. Public parks and swimming pools were closed to keep children from spreading the dreaded disease, which could cripple and kill. (5-10% mortality for children, 15-30% mortality for teens and adults if the virus attacked respiratory muscles, and even for non-crippled survivors the risk of post-polio syndrome disabilities later in life.) So, when the Salk vaccine, by inoculation, became available, whole families, nay, the whole community, lined up outside the local elementary school to get their shots, and not many years later, to get their sugar cube with the oral Sabin vaccine. This was life-saving and life-improving. I was a little kid, so there may have been adults who resented the vaccine lines we all stood in, but all I heard was “Thank God!” But my point is that community wide pushes to immunize against epidemic disease was not new with Covid!


Would this memory have been a bypass during the pandemic? I’m not sure, but it would at least not be a direct attack on their current fears.

 

Will it always be straightforward to identify the right bypass? Probably not. Is it worth trying? You bet! Anything that keeps the lines of communication open is worth the effort. [Read and listen to more here -


It is a cold MLK day morning as I review this. Two thoughts from the MLK day breakfast— “make a career of humanity”, and don’t sit and wait for hope; build hope with positive action. Thank you to all Leaguers for the humanity you show and the positive actions you take.

 
 
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