A Theodore Talks Lecture by Jenny Grant Rankin, PhD
How to Communicate with Someone Who Disagrees with You
Sunday, September 27th, 2026, at 2:30 pm
In our highly polarized societies, chances are good that you’ve run across someone who disagrees with you. Whether you want increased harmony or you want to get your views across despite the hostile terrain, both can be achieved with key communication strategies. Even people who are highly resistant to your ideas can lower their guard and by doing so embrace your points of view, if they: Identify which cognitive obstacles are behind an audience’s resistance to your facts; and then communicate in a way that targets the reasons why failing to connect exist (which often aren’t the same reasons which your audience thinks may be driving his/her/their resistance). This presentation will explain what is happening in the brain of someone who disagrees with you and it will offer practical strategies for persuading even the most adverse audiences. Can we achieve better discussions and relations throughout the entire process?
Jenny Grant Rankin, PhD and a Mensa member, has taught these common strategies at Columbia University and the University of Cambridge, as well as in her published books and her Psychology Today online column, and while training federal agents, researchers, business executives, educators, and others on the best ways to share their ideas. This engaging presentation will merge rich storytelling with comprehensive research that may surprise you, may delight you, and may inform you along your merry way.
Register for this presentation here.
Theodore Talks take place via Zoom on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m. CT.
A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the American Mensa National Events Calendar.
Questions? Contact Brad Lucht at: [email protected].
