Using Cognitive Science to Frame Your Facts
I’ve been reading a goodly amount about George Lakoff and cognitive science. If you haven’t been following cognitive science, George explains it below:
One of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that people think in terms of frames and metaphors -- conceptual structures like those we have been describing. The frames are in the synapses of our brains -- physically present in the form of neural circuitry. When the facts don't fit the frames, the frames are kept and the facts ignored.
It is a common folk theory of progressives that "The facts will set you free!" If only you can get all the facts out there in the public eye, then every rational person will reach the right conclusion. It is a vain hope. Human brains just don't work that way. Framing matters. Frames once entrenched are hard to dispel.
That’s why issues like sequencing, as Greg Cusimano suggests are so important. Cognitive science is a matter of breaking down and proving the power of story telling that we trial lawyers have known of all along.
