Advocacy

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse to infect your writing, you may unwittingly leave supporters feeling confused an alienated. To...

How tempting is it to ‘bust myths’ and confront your opponent’s ridiculous claims head-on!? Hint: very. Proceed with caution—countering false claims can unintentionally reinforce them. However, if you can reframe the conversation, you get to own it...

Quick read

Great communication is not just about what you say but how you say it. Who says it also matters. You won’t always be the best vehicle for your message. It helps to know when someone else...

It’s not hard to preach to the choir. Or to mount an argument so agreeable that it won’t offend or challenge anyone. The business of wide-scale change-making affords us neither of these luxuries. Since you’re reading...

How do you encourage and celebrate meat-reduction efforts in ways that will be receptive to meat eaters but won’t alienate vegetarians or vegans? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Meat eaters can...

How can you keep vegans on board with lobbying efforts to incrementally improve welfare standards for systems they’ve chosen to boycott? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Ethical vegans recognize that cruelty...