Stop talking. Start listening

Stop talking. Start listening

Populists rarely win because they make better arguments. They often ride on the way their opponents react. Attacking populists only makes them stronger, not because of what is said, but because of the emotion it evokes. The decisive factor here is not the power of persuasion, but the effect of inner resistance, or ‘reactance’ as they call it in psychology. Psychologist Jack Brehm described this effect as a sort of internal defiance. When someone…