“Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights” with Brian F. Harrison and Melissa R. Michelson

Event time: 
Thursday, March 9, 2017 - 2:00pm through 3:15pm
Location: 
Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), The Policy Lab
77 Prospect St.
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

EVENT SPONSORED BY THE POLICY LAB AT ISPS

Join us in The Policy Lab for a conversation with political scientists, Brian F. Harrison and Melissa R. Michelson, on their new book, Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights. Their research tests a new theory, what Brian Harrison and Melissa Michelson call The Theory of Dissonant Identity Priming, about how to change people’s attitudes on controversial topics. Harrison and Michelson conducted randomized experiments all over the United States, many in partnership with equality organizations, including Equality Illinois, Georgia Equality, Lambda Legal, Equality Maryland, and Louisiana’s Capital City Alliance. They found that people are often willing to change their attitudes about LGBT rights when they find out that others with whom they share an identity (for example, as sports fans or members of a religious group) are also supporters of those rights—particularly when told about support from a leader of the group, and particularly if they find the information somewhat surprising.

Fans of the Green Bay Packers football team were influenced by hearing that a Packers Hall-of-Famer is a supporter of LGBT rights. African Americans were influenced by hearing that the Black president of the United States is a supporter. Religious individuals were influenced by hearing that a religious leader is a supporter. And strong partisans were influenced by hearing that a leader of their party is a supporter. Through a series of engaging experiments and compelling evidence, Listen, We Need to Talk provides a blueprint for thinking about how to bring disparate groups together over contentious political issues.

Open to: 
Yale Community Only
Admission: 
Free
Registration Info: 
To join a small student lunch discussion before the event at 12:30, RSVP to katherine.mccabe@yale.edu.

Brian F. Harrison (Ph.D. Northwestern University) is a political scientist, writer, and award-winning teacher. He has taught at Northwestern University, Wesleyan University, Loyola University-Chicago, and DePaul University and has held academic affiliations with Yale University and New York University. Brian is a specialist in political communication, political behavior and attitude change, and public opinion. He is co-author of Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights (Oxford University Press, 2017) and has published in academic journals like Political Behavior, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Social Science Quarterly, among others. Prior to graduate school, Brian was a White House appointee to the Department of Homeland Security. In his spare time, Brian enjoys playing the piano and writing music.

Melissa R. Michelson (Ph.D. Yale University) is Professor of Political Science at Menlo College. She is co-author of Mobilizing Inclusion: Redefining Citizenship through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (Yale, 2012), which won the 2013 American Political Science Association’s Ralph Bunche award and the 2013 best book award from the American Political Science Association’s Race, Ethnicity and Politics section, Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth (Paradigm, 2014), A Matter of Discretion: The Politics of Catholic Priests in the United States and Ireland (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), and Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights (Oxford, 2017). She has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, including pieces in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, and International Migration Review. Her current research projects explore voter registration and mobilization in minority communities and persuasive communication on LGBT rights. In her spare time, she knits and runs marathons.