Dr Mike Baxter: “The psychology of persuasion in a world of fake news”

Not so long ago we hosted our guest speaker, Dr Mike Baxter.  Since 2001, Mike has advised c-suite and senior leadership teams of Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies on major global business transformation projects.  Mike is a psychologist by training and has had successful careers as a research scientist, product designer, government advisor, author, professor of design and communication and trawler man before becoming a consultant.

In his remarks:  ‘The psychology of persuasion in a world of fake news’, Mike will look at three key points;

1.  ‘Confirmation bias’ – we attend to information confirming our existing beliefs and ignore challenges / refutations
2.  The ‘illusion of explanatory depth’ – we mistakenly believe we understand more than we do and hold stronger beliefs about things we poorly understand
3.  So, entrenched beliefs make culture change (in society or in business) hard.  Yet, it is really important – up to 70% of employees report they are NOT engaged at work. How can psychology be applied to eliminating change blockers and boosting change catalysts.

Mike gave a fantastic speech which led to an in depth discussion about how fake news impacts us all on a daily basis.