To your point, the first step is to make them <i>want to be convinced</i>. For the irrational, changing beliefs is about many of the things we might consider heresy: appeals to authority, ad homonym attacks, etc. But much more often, I have found the key is if the person feels connected to you or the people making the counter argument.<p>Of course we can not logic to dissuade someone of a belief they arrived at emotionally. Instead, if you actually want to do it, you have to use emotion. It&#x27;s <i>our</i> poor reasoning that makes us to try reason with the unreasonable.