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Happy midterm day if you are in the U.S. and you celebrate it. And hopefully we have something to celebrate tonight!
I’ve been thinking a lot this election season about how stories get used, for good and otherwise.
I believe stories are very powerful, and I teach leaders how to use them effectively to make the world better. We can learn a lot from the people who use stories for bad - who use them to manipulate and spread misinformation. Why? Because they are really, really good at it.
Understanding the patterns that help misinformation spread successfully helps us counter it. I've been teaching this every quarter for the past year to a cohort of refugees and allies on how to counter misinformation in the immigration space.
You undoubtedly face a similar situation in your line of work. Your organization, you personally, your community - how do people get you wrong? How can you flip it? Let’s explore that today through the lens of the highly polarized political environment.
I was curious how people can watch the same speeches and come away with opposite conclusions. The answer, at least in part, is a pattern I see as fear, villain, fix. Find a fear people already carry. Give it a face (through a story). Then offer a simple fix. Story can be used to manipulate through a narrative system that identifies and then feeds into a fear. That’s story for bad. Some people fall for it; others do not. I’ll get back to that.
This pattern shows up across the political spectrum, in boardrooms, and in your own community.
Let’s take an example from the September 2024 Presidential debate. That immigrants are bad for our country and need to be deported: “Haitians are eating your pets” was one story that supported this narrative, and it started from a Facebook post in which a woman repeated a secondhand claim from her neighbor that another neighbor’s cat was missing and had possibly been attacked by Haitian neighbors. That neighbor later said the post misidentified her account. Even unverified, this story was amplified by then-candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance and fed into people’s fears about immigrants. Even though the neighbor said she was misquoted, and local authorities said there was no evidence, people believed it was true. And immigrants (and particularly Haitians) found themselves targeted. Bomb threats closed schools and Springfield’s city hall in the days after the debate. And the story still lives on, difficult to debunk.
Revisiting the Fear/Villain/Fix narrative, in this case, it’s
Fear: my community is changing fast, and there is not enough to go around.
Villain: the newcomers who aren’t like me.
Fix: send them away.
Despite the facts, people still believed the cat story to be true.
The narrative is implanted and feeds on deeply held beliefs. No matter what you say or do, or how hard you work at it, you’re unlikely to move people whose identity is built on the story.
The good thing is that quite possibly, you also have people who, no matter what, will come to your defense. Your ambassadors.
Stories For Good
Then, there are the people Define American calls the Movable Middle. More moderate in their opinions, they are, as the name suggests, open to being moved. They watch the online debate on the issue at hand and might ask AI or fact-check stories that don't add up. They could also be reading the comments, and your lack of engagement isn't serving you. Silence used to be harmless; I no longer believe that’s true.
You might not be able to sway the staunch detractors, but others are watching.
How to move the movable middle.
What’s the thing people get wrong about you? Make a list if you need to. Hopefully it’s not a long one.
Review your list and pick one. What’s the message that counters it? (Not a nuh-uh, but a positively stated flip of that message.)
Take the flip and build out your narrative system
Humanize the issue by showing the people behind the message.
What’s your connection to the message? People need to trust you to trust your message.
Get others to tell their stories. This is where your ambassadors come in.
The biggest surprise for my students is understanding they don’t have to share their trauma or their deepest secrets to build trust. Some of them worried that telling their own stories would make it all about them. We’ve learned that trust comes from small stories: the everyday moments that let people see who you are. That’s what builds community, and community is where people are open to being moved.
So here’s your assignment this week. Pick the one thing people get wrong about you (or your work). Write the flip. Then think of one small story, not the big one, that shows who you really are. This will start a storytelling habit that, over time — and it will take time; it will not be easy — will start to move the movable middle.
Take care out there.
