A long lost sociology paper from 1971 predicts the rise of Trump and fake news. Here's what modern communicators can learn from it...
How do liars and conmen become presidents and powerful political figures?
Why do millions of people around the world still believe that 9/11 was an inside job?
Why do people pay thousands of dollars for motivational seminars where they're forced to walk over hot coals by a man with no academic credentials?
Why do marketers believe the 'rags to riches' story of a loudmouth New Jersey private school guy who was handed a million dollar business?
It sounds crazy.
But according to a 1971 paper, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this.
Once you understand it, you'll see how it can be applied everywhere.
For good and bad.
-------------
Upon his death in 2007, Murray S Davis was heralded as the most quietly influential sociologists of the 21st century. His theories of communication laid the foundations for the work that came after.
Yet a quick Google search for his name throws up little. Davis is almost completely unknown outside the academic bubble.
One of his most influential papers is now almost half a century old. It had been lost in time, buried in a dusty library. But the full text (and a variety of sharp summaries) turned up online recently.
Necessary characteristic of greatness...
In 'That's Interesting!', Davis sets out to understand why some ideas are interesting and others are not. He looks at those ideas that have 'wide circulation' and fame, methodically explaining how they got traction.
His findings are fascinating.
According to Davis:
"It has long been thought that a theorist is considered great because his theories are true, but this is false. A theorist is considered great, not because his theories are true, but because they are interesting."
He says that:
"The truth of a theory has very little to do with its impact, for a theory can continue to be found interesting even though its truth is disputed or refuted! This capacity to stimulate interest is a necessary (if not sufficient) characteristic of greatness."
In essence, you can be 100% factually correct and not make even a ripple with people because you're boring as fuck. And you can be factually incorrect and make a huge splash because you're entertaining and magnetic.
People want to worship at the altar of charming, charismatic, good looking high priests and priestesses. They want to engage with ideas that enthral and excite them.
They reality is that facts alone don't change our minds.
We also need to be entertained.
As Dave Trott has written, "people prefer and interesting lie to a dull truth".
Or as Stanley Kubrick said, "real is good, but interesting is better".
What can we learn?
It all sounds a bit depressing right? The truth should be the truth. But our in-built narrative bias means our definition of 'truth' is often just the most compelling, interesting story.
Once you're aware of this, you can start to can apply this idea to improve your own communication skills.
I'm not saying you need to be more interesting than correct. Don't take all your cues from Trump, Farage, Alex Jones and Gary V.
It's not a question of being either entertaining and untruthful or boring and truthful.
If you want to have an impact, if you want to grab some attention, you need to do both.
Be both interesting and logically sound.
Find a way to tell a story that's correct and detailed enough to be authoritative, but also sharp, edited and interesting enough to be consumed and remembered.
People prefer storytellers to faceless academics. Technical jargon and long detailed explanations are the enemy of good storytelling.
It's also up to you to present your ideas to people in a way that's both palatable and exciting. to the masses. Be populist. Take important, difficult to understand ideas and make them sharp, interesting, shareable and entertaining.
This isn't dumbing down, it's the skill of editing.
Taking back control
Ironically, Murray S Davis did not attract much fame or notoriety himself. At the end of his most famous essay, he calls on readers to 'become more aware of these factors' and to 'make their own writings more interesting to contend against false but compelling information'.
In this era of 'fake news', Davis' findings on generating attention, fame and interest have been weaponised and used incredibly effectively by some of the biggest crooks, snake oil salesmen and scoundrels of our time.
These people have shown us that persuasion is about much more than being right, truthful or moral.
You also need to be interesting and magnetic. You need to engage people.
Maybe it's time that we take some of the control back by employing these tactics for ourselves.
Because a fact made entertaining is a more powerful fact.
Shane O'Leary
Sign up for my newsletter here for more good stuff like this