>people never change their minds during a debate if they are involved in it
>nobody wants to go out of there way to absorb new information
So how do you actually convince people of things?
Whenever I have ever managed to "convince" (more like educate) someone of anything it happened essentially instantaneously. I can't think of one instance I ever changed anyone's mind in a debate with them or an extended explanation where they didn't seem to understand off the bat.
Is it simply impossible to get some people to understand things? Are people too unintelligent or unwilling? Has there been any decent studies done on this?
It doesn't seem to matter how polite I am when it comes to changing someone's mind. It can make people like you more but it doesn't DO anything because in a lot of situations to be polite you have to essentially never actually hard disagree and focus on the points of disagreement. It's always the "agree to disagree" route.