Book talk to focus on changing attitudes about LGBT rights

Purdue's Politics, Groups, and Identities Journal is holding a book talk on April 4 with the authors of "Listen, We Need to Talk: How to Change Attitudes about LGBT Rights."

Authors Melissa Michelson and Brian Harrison will lead the talk, which will be 6-7:30 p.m. in Lawson Computer Science Building, Room 1142. The event is free and open to the public.

Over the past three decades, public support for same-sex marriage has risen from scarcely more than a tenth to a majority of the population, according to Michelson and Harrison. Why have people's minds changed so dramatically on this issue, and why so quickly? "Listen, We Need to Talk" tests a new theory, what Michelson and Harrison call the "Theory of Dissonant Identity Priming," about how to change people's attitudes on controversial topics. The authors find that people are often willing to change their attitudes about LGBT rights when they find out that others with whom they share an identity are also supporters of those rights.

Michelson is a professor of political science at Menlo College with research in Get Out the Vote in minority communities, persuasive communication on contentious issues, and Muslim American political attitudes and behavior. Harrison is a lecturer in political science at Northwestern University with research in American politics, political communication, public opinion and political behavior, political psychology, LGBT politics, and partisan identification.

Co-organizers for the talk are the Purdue Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center, Department of Political Science, Purdue Policy Research Institute, Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion, and School for Interdisciplinary Studies.