This is very interesting. There is a common belief that you cannot persuade anyone on the internet. This amazes me as the internet is the number one source of i

This is very interesting. There is a common belief that you cannot persuade anyone on the internet. This amazes me as the internet is the number one source of information for most people and information does change beliefs. Perhaps the reason for this is that we are arguing poorly, arguing at the wrong time and not recognizing when we have made an impact. This article gives some insight for how we can improve. Argue when people are receptive to change. The first point was respond sooner, however, this misses the fact that these were requests posted to board dedicated to changing minds. When the poster submitted they were open to new ideas. This is the best time to provide alternative view points and it is very transient. The next question is how to identify this. People don't like being the odd one out. When someone is open to changing their mind it means they doubt their position. This doubt is amplified by the more people that have an alternative view point. In practical application it means that it is useless to go into a group of like minded people and attack their core beliefs as is so often seen when people "raid" a sub-cultures message board. There are diminishing returns for each exchange and after a tipping point it has a negative effect. Those long back and forth yelling matches are just as useless as they appear. Respond a few times and then disengage. Any points you have made are already done and continuing will undo that work. Supportive evidence helps. I think this is part of the group persuasion point. It shows that their is a large group supporting the idea. However, I've had very poor results when linking to external evidence so this one is the most interesting to me as it contradicts my views. Quoting to person you are arguing with is aggressive. This shows you are attacking them and their words directly and immediately puts them on the defensive. You have now forced the person to admit what they said was wrong if they change their mind. This is a much harder battle. This theme continues in the "don't act too intense" point. Defensive people are not open to change. If you want to change someone's mind put effort into your response. A longer more thoughtful response will have more effect than a pithy comment. The last point was the most useful: provide new information. So often we attack where the person is strongest. They have the information and have made their interpretation of it. You can either say the information is wrong or their interpretation is wrong. Both of these will make them defensive. However, by providing additional information you give them an out. They can now change their mind without ever being wrong, they were just not aware of all the facts. Core to all of this is having a definition of success. Too often arguments, especially on the internet, have the goal of the person admitting they were wrong. This leads to the poor arguments we see littering comment sections. However, if the goal is to persuade a person to take a different action then this article suggests a course of action. Identify the action they are currently going to take: Voting for Trump. Dig into why they are going to take that action: because he will help the economy. Present additional information with supporting sources: Trumps stance on Muslims. Disengage, further discourse is unlikely to be helpful.