Committing to curiosity rather than assumptions or judgment. "I needed to be sure people knew that we no longer had evidence. Hes married to a woman now, and hes so much happier. But sometimes the gulf between the volunteer and the voter can seem insurmountable. They urged voters to talk about anyone they knew who was gay or lesbian and, more important, to speak about their own marriages. Effective Lobbying and Deep Canvassing - Institute for Change Leaders The distinguishing feature of a deep canvass is you take a lot more time to talk to voters and have a bona fide two-way conversation about real experiences that shape their thinking about the issues. Dave Fleischer of The Leadership Lab joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about how he's spent most of his life fighting for equal rights for LGBTQ people and how deep canvassing can help us find common ground and reduce prejudice. Share this page on LinkedIn, 7 Questions with Dave Fleischer on Deep Canvassing, Remote Work Culture: How to Boost Your Company Culture. But after shooing the dog into another room, Nancy appeared in her doorway again. One group aired a lurid television ad of a man following a frightened, wide-eyed young girl into a bathroom stall. He and his colleagues started the effort in 2009, shortly after the Prop 8 constitutional amendment and struck down same-sex marriage in California. But Science retracted the study five months later, after the lead author couldnt produce his data and admitted to lying about aspects of the experiments design. Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword, Sign up for the That doesn't mean everybody came away feeling more positive about transgender rights. How Do You Change Voters Minds? The curse of the orange hats, read a headline in Salon. Talking about marriage brought up deep emotion. Volunteer's go door-to-door, talking to strangers, and often change their attitudes about things like same-sex marriage and transgender rights. He calls it "deep canvassing. In the new study, Kalla and Broockman put deep canvassing through a more rigorous test. The biggest gift you can give someone whose mind you want to change is a supportive environment that lets them think about their experiences and how those experiences affect their opinions on issues. LaCour appeared to be breaking new ground, showing that one brief but memorable interaction could reduce prejudice. issues, told me that changing peoples minds about transgender rights might simply come down to which side gets to a voters door first to do the persuading.. The idea grew out of Fleischers own experience as a Jewish, liberal gay kid in Chillicothe, Ohio. Ellas earliest organizing focus was on developing innovative tactics to recruit, train and retain large, dedicated volunteer teams with the Oregon Student Association at the University of Oregon. In addition to being a strong persuasion medium, for some issue areas, the deep canvass can also help to serve as an effective voter research tool as well. We trained our volunteers to connect with voters at the door on a personal and values level, not to talk at them with scripted talking points. This family is a 10!, Several of Rileys conversations proved poignant. But when it comes to changing minds, they work. Susmik now works on Peoples Actions National Field Team, supporting deep canvassing and movement politics work. In it, canvassers in three areas central Tennessee; Fresno, California; and Orange County, California went door to door and interacted with 2,374 voters in these communities during the runup to the 2018 midterm elections. These conversations arent arguments. Jeremy Bird, a Hillary Clinton adviser who was the national field director for Obamas 2012 re-election effort, told me that his team conducted a number of experiments to try to have a greater impact when canvassing. You can also go more in-depth on the science behind deep canvassing by reading the academic study referenced by the New York Times that was published by political scientists David Broockman and Josh Kalla in the peer-reviewed journal Science. Fleischer then returned to his scale, asking Nancy what number felt right for her now. And 75 percent of the people who start the conversations with the canvassers share a story about their own lives. Volunteers who want to work on an election happening in their community or a nearby community will have the option to use a fill-in-the-blank style voter ID or GOTV script. Kalla says some people came away from the canvasser feeling very differently and some people not so much at all. Tags Canvassing for climate action: Heres how to make it work, 2021 (Podcast 40:53 mins). Mike LaCour had not assembled [it]. Its too bad that the takeaway was that only gay people could persuade people about gay marriage, Broockman says about LaCours retracted study. The groups feared a backlash against a recent ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. Leadership LAB - Los Angeles LGBT Center Broockman and Kalla were intrigued by LaCours findings and hoped to replicate it for an experiment measuring the Leadership Labs transgender canvassing. Because abortion is such a politically polarized issue, he said, it could just be that we have to get better at making voters trust us and open up. But it could also be that the Leadership Labs transgender canvassing success is an anomaly. Which makes it feel like a big departure from a lot of the current political dialogue. Transcript: Interview from Episode 080 - You Are Not So Smart Let a person be who they are.. In the age of Trump, theres a compelling push to call things what they are. Its this nonjudgmental exchanging of narratives that Broockman and Kalla think is the key ingredient in how deep canvassing works. Deep Canvass, There, Executive Director David Fleischer, collaborating with political scientists David Broockman and Josh Kalla and a host of staff and volunteers, have been working for years to iterate a model called deep canvassing.. "When we were nonjudgmental and vulnerable with them and when we exchanged our lived experiences about marriage and gay people, that's when we started changing people's minds," he says. A new study finds that it works. "Our ability to change voters' hearts and minds has been measured, this time for real," Fleischer said, contrasting the intensely reviewed work of Broockman and Kalla to the earlier, retracted paper. In these, researchers included conditions to see whether the conversations could work if conducted over the phone (they did, but it was slightly less effective). That changed everything, Fleischer told me. Nancy had mostly dismissed Fleischers how did that make you feel? questions, but his personal story prompted a shift. Its a type of conversation thats closer to what a psychotherapist might have with a patient than a typical political argument. Leadership LAB Conversation with a Voter about Transgender Rights, 2016(Video 8:30 mins). But many times this approach underestimates whos persuadable. He has been organizing for over 20 years, with deep experience in community organizing, electoral politics and the immigrants rights movement. Over the past few years, deep canvassing has been adopted by some progressive activist groups looking to not only change minds when it comes to policies on immigration and LGBTQ rights, but also to reduce prejudice toward these groups. Advocacy Trainings: 7 Questions w/ Martn Diego Garcia, Clean Your List Email List Hygiene Makes for Better Email Marketing, Patch-Through Calls: What Are They & When to Use Them. In a conventional canvass, campaigns try to control the message by sending volunteers out with a script to recite exactly as written. Across the street, a man in his late 30s who said he was liberal and pro-L.G.B.T.-rights moved to a five from an eight, explaining that he was deeply worried about the bathroom issue. The mans concern seemed informed by his experience in a New York City nightclub; he hinted at his discomfort standing at a urinal next to a drag queen. After the canvass, the groups filled out four follow-up surveys, up to three months later. Knocking on a strangers door is scary, and a lot of that mornings training session was spent boosting the confidence of first-time canvassers. Ellas earliest organizing focus was on developing innovative tactics to recruit, train and retain large, dedicated volunteer teams with the Oregon Student Association at the University of Oregon. I made a mistake, she said. They, along with Yale statistician Peter Aronow, discovered that LaCour's work was almost a complete fabrication. People are resistant to changing their mind during an argument, the hypothesis goes, because it threatens their self-image. It is a landmark study, according to Elizabeth Paluck, a psychologist at Princeton University who was not involved with the work. But research shows that the impact of our deep canvass conversations can last nine months or longer. Still, the Leadership Lab is unusual in its focus on quality over quantity. But even if that happens, he says, it at least will encourage people to think deeply about the issues they're going to vote on. Advancement Leadership Lab Eboni Taggart has over 15 years of experience in community-building, she has maximized the leadership skills of community members, teachers, youth, and parents to advocate for transformative systemic change on issues that impact their lives. Think of any of our recent elections nobody is winning these things by 10 or 20 points. At the Leadership Lab's two-hour pre-canvass training that morning, volunteers were warned about "fake 10s," people who think of themselves as against discrimination many of them Democrats . But not both.". Most people consider marriage the most important and meaningful thing they ever did. First, theres the magnitude of the impact. The key to changing peoples minds is to be curious about what other people think. There are very few tests of prejudice reduction methods, and Paluck says this suggests the Los Angeles LGBT Center's approach is actually far more effective than previous efforts, like TV ads. Giving grace. Both types of canvassers could instigate change. Though there is scant research on transgender prejudice, what is known suggests transgender people face widespread prejudice and discrimination, Aaron Norton and Gregory Herek wrote in their 2012 study of heterosexual attitudes toward transgender Americans. "What we've learned by having real, in-depth conversations with people is that. I know it exists, and I hear stories, and I see them on TV. Contact Cambridge, MA, USA (617) 702-4787 caleb@owlfoxdean.com. He also helped lead a second Deep Canvass operation in three states in 2021 during the federal immigration debate. David Fleischer discusses best practices to approach deep canvassing to impact the mind of voters efficiently. He and LGBT Center volunteers began talking to as many people as they could, trying to understand why they lost Prop 8. PDF Book Club Synopsis He then did something few political consultants would advise: He introduced her to the oppositions favorite argument. Toward the end of the conversation, the canvasser nudges the voter into thinking about how that experience can relate to the plight of transgender people. Something went wrong. She told voters about her own transgender child, Jie, now an adult. In New Hampshire, Susmik reached out to immigrant and refugee communities in the state, which has a particularly high number of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal. He vowed to keep at it, but soon there was no need. We can change the minds of 1 in 10 people we talk to. No, Im sorry, she said. Namely: Its larger, and it targets more issues, both trans rights and policies protective of undocumented immigrants. If only I could have 10 minutes with Ted Cruz, Fleischer said once. Video example of deep canvassing. Thats the thing theyre happier when they come out, whenever everybody knows, she said. Read transcript and/or Read more about it. What is a deep canvass and how is it different from a traditional canvass? An excellent introduction to deep canvassing and the work of the Leadership LAB can be found in an April 2016 feature article in the New York Times Magazine: How Do You Change Voters Minds? 6. Note: One needs to login/become a member to access webinar. Not every campaign can afford to run canvasses. The canvassers role is primarily to listen, to build trust and then to have a respectful conversation about areas where both parties may disagree. However, a modern technique of deep canvassing developed by David Fleischer at the Leadership LAB encourages canvassers to engage in one-on-one conversations with the intention of gaining understanding, building empathy, and finding common ground. They are supposed to appear genuinely interested in hearing the subject ruminate on the question, as Broockman and Kallas latest study instructions read. As the team's National Mentoring Coordinator he partnered with organizations and campaigns across the country to develop and apply deep conversation approaches - around marriage equality, trans-inclusive nondiscrimination laws, criminal justice reform, and reproductive justice - on the ground. It's of a real voter and a canvasser from the Leadership Lab, a program of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which spearheaded this canvassing method after losing the 2008 Proposition 8 ballot. Deep Canvassing Workshop 2022 Medicare for All Strategy Conference, HealthCareNow, 2022 (see example from 48:40 mins), Peoples Action Institute Deep Canvass Script, 2020, Peoples Action Institute (Report see pgs 8-9), Insights from Deep Canvassing: Proven Scripts for Transformational Outreach, The New Conversation Initiative, Netroots Nation, 2022 (Video), How We Can Reduce Prejudice with a Conversation, David Fleischer , TEDxMidAtlantic, 2017 (Video 16:51 mins), Unpacking Deep Canvassing, Indivisible, 2022 (Video See marriage equality example at 5:42 mins), Deep Canvassing: Changing Voters Minds Through Conversation, Leading Change Network, 2018 (Video 1:32:42 mins). Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today. Deep canvassing is an approach to conversations which is non-judgemental and invites people to open up about their real conflicted feelings on an issue. Both were on display during many of the canvass conversations I observed, including the one with Nancy, the woman who moved to a five from a 10 after watching the opposition video. ", The Leadership LAB of the Los Angeles LGBT Center trains people in canvassing techniques aimed at reducing prejudice. His deep canvassing career and vision took off in rural North Carolina, where hehelped change hearts and minds in our groundbreaking immigration deep canvass with Down Home North Carolina. They share takeaways on how to construct outreach scripts that bridge divides and move people powerfully, with practical examples from advocacy campaigns on the ground. In the full-conversation condition, 33 percent were in support. Deep canvassing is a long-term investment, but the impact is cumulative. Volunteers working a 2-hour shift, on an average, can complete 5 conversations. #KnockEveryDoor isnt currently supporting or opposing any particular federal, state, or local candidate, but instead we are providing materials for volunteers to support or oppose candidates of their choosing. Fleischer asked her to rate that support on a scale from zero to 10. Theres this belief that if we just say the right words, the voters going to change their mind. Then we try to convince them to change their minds. Immigration particularly that of asylum seekers loomed over the 2018 elections. They sent out surveys to thousands of homes in Miami, asking people to answer questions that included how they felt about transgender people and if they would support legal protection against discrimination for transgender people. That means not making assumptions based on the voters age, race or their religion. Then, last month, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill preventing cities and counties from enacting their own anti-discrimination legislation, stripping existing protections.
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