Why People Change Their Hard-Rooted Opinions

NPR

Published May 1, 2017 at 12:40 PM EDT

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Steam and exhaust rise from a power plant on Jan. 6, 2017 in Oberhausen, Germany. According to a report released by the European Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2016 is likely to have been the hottest year since global temperatures were recorded in the 19th century. (Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)

Conversations about issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and climate change can often feel fraught, with each side digging further in on their opinions. But sometimes people’s opinions do change. In a recent informal AskReddit discussion, one user posed the question: “Former climate change deniers, what changed your mind?” The results where surprising.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with freelance journalist Karin Kirk (@karinkirk_mt), who wrote about the results for Yale Climate Connections.

Young also speaks with Becca Merrill, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose Mormon upbringing shaped her beliefs about same-sex relationships and the role of women in society. Merrill explains how those opinions began to change.