When encountering someone who is skeptical of or against animal agriculture, even if their opinions are based on falsehoods, the best way to deal with them is not to debate.
Instead, Candace Croney, director, Purdue University Center for Animal Welfare, recommends that you deliberate. Croney made those points on May 7 while speaking during the 2020 Animal Agriculture Alliance Virtual Stakeholders Summit session, “Can You Hear Me Now? How Agriculture Can Communicate on Animal Welfare.”
While Croney said debates can be fun, they are not always productive.
“We want to engage people in the opportunity to think through the problem with us, rather than prove to them they are wrong and we are right,” said Croney.
“The problem with debates is there is always a winner and there is always a loser. When you are trying to communicate with the public or trying to communicate with anyone, you really don’t want someone to leave feeling like they’ve lost. People don’t tend to feel good about that. They don’t tend to want to explore the topic further.”
What Croney suggests is instead of trying to win an argument or make a point, use these conversations as an opportunity to engage in two-way dialogue. Ask what people they think, and ask them why they think it. And then it’s important to listen for their underlying concerns. What are those underlying values that they are expecting in that conversation? How can you help to guide that conversation with questions that may be helpful to them, and frankly, could be helpful for you as well?
Listen closely to their concerns, she recommended, and when possible, find a shared value. For instance, if the person’s concern is based on compassion for animals, discuss how you also have compassion for animals and what you do to exemplify that compassion. Such a conversation not only builds on shared values, but an opportunity to explore them together. It also removes “the opportunity for rhetorical darts to be thrown at each other,” which she said doesn’t solve problems or build a rapport.
Croney also spoke during the pre-summit webinar, “Science as a Tool to Address Animal Welfare,” on May 5. During that presentation, she mentioned the opportunity to discuss the advances in animal euthanasia that make it more humane, but she questioned whether it was appropriate to do so as people are facing other issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
