If you have been baffled WHY other people think so dramatically differently than you and would love to understand "WHY", you need to read this!

Book Review of  SEARCH FOR WHY by Bob Raleigh, Ph.D.  

If you have been baffled when other people think so dramatically differently than you and would love to understand why, you need to read  Bob Raleigh’s The Search for Why. It is an antidote to your frustration to understand or appreciate views so dramatically different than your own. Yet we  need  to find common ground to traverse those apparently unbridgeable gaps and differences. 

This wonderful book helps us understand what has been unintelligible and so frustrating. It’s not just that we differ but the world view which we sometimes speak of as an alternative universe makes no sense to us.  By exploring the instinctual foundations of WHY we can begin  move beyond polarization anger and frustration and in so doing transcend the psychology of individual differences, giving us a widow to understanding. 

The human interface is the most complex node on the most  complex network we’ve ever known and we need help to navigate it. While it is clear that we do not live in a one size fits all world Having a helpful framework to help us reach out to others and identify common ground is critical. The reader outfitted with an explanatory framework to understand how we can deal with incivility and strongly held beliefs that are inconsistent with our own and identify common ground and mutual accommodation. 

This requires going back to our instinctual roots to understand how our decisions and loyalties are framed.  By bridging the link of how we operate in modern life and with our Stone age instincts we can better understand the ineffable. This approach provides stunningly accurate predictors lets us know the why people do what they do and what motivates their values and choices. 

We have been pursuing a natural evolutionary process back to tribal instincts embedded in us since the stone age where we realized the benefits of  the impact of caring, loyalty fairness and authority as an array of attributes of the group. The broad array of instincts made the tribe more successful so long as one did not embrace the aberrant extremes. We can intervene by helping people understand and communicate the limitations of the single instinctive tribal perspective. We can provide a bridge for people. This supports the propensity to reach across to others tribes to improve our ability  to survive and thrive

We seek to unpack and understand not only the uniqueness  of the tribe but also the capacity to communicate with one another understanding the value and shortcomings of any particular tribal view. Any given tribal view is lacking and we need to reach out to help influence and effect change. 

The connectiveness of the world confronts us to embrace  our tribal foundations. Long ago we realized that no single discipline has all the answers. addressing and solving this problem required us to integrate the best of data science neuroscience and psychology to deploy their unique perspectives to get a handle on this. Tribes, connectivity and intuition (TCI) are the master keys to understanding how to unlock the riddle of WHY we do the things we do. Why you vote as you do, why you join what you join, why you buy what you buy and why you love who you love, are the answers to the otherwise incomprehensible riddles

The PathSight model of the human interface that draws broadly from the science of psychology, data science and neuroscience in order to construct a new starting point that captures one’s foundational instincts, personalities, and core beliefs in a Worldview that guides one’s  life. These 5 Worldviews  are universal to every culture, style of government and economy.  They are stunningly accurate predictors of a person’s thoughts, beliefs and actions across any number of human activities. It gives us the is why people do what they do. The author shares a digestible array of pivotal psychological studies that has shaped his thinking coupled with his experience in the entertainment and marketing worlds

We can define world views  through a person’s age life stage gender and ethnicity. Different messaging music images impact each of these worldviews quite differently. What may be attractive to one world view is repugnant to another. Using nonvolatile language is a great starting point in terms of reaching across to the other and avoiding emotionally loaded languages images or concepts that create viscera; responses. The manner in which we process information must be understood and accounted for. This can reduce the urge to deflect, deny or distort. 

Personalizing and molding messaging consistent with the way a person thinks, responds and views the world  breaks down barriers.  Engaging people in a manner that significantly changes their behavior requires understanding the science behind the instinct that drives our choices. This provides stunningly accurate predictors to set the tone for behavior change. It lets us know the why people do what they do. Personalizing and molding messaging consistent with the way a person thinks, responds and views the world not only breaks down barriers but also expands the scope and breadth of engagement dramatically

When Dr. Raleigh talks about the Trump experiment as well as Covid lights go off that illuminate what has be seen as being so vague and incomprehensible. He analyzes the voting patterns in terms of the various worldviews  and articulates how the Trump 2016 campaign was “a master class in instinctual triggering”

If we can learn that and how we are wired to see things differently we might be able to create systems that are more meaningful and consequential and have a better life. The model of Why gives us the insight understanding and vision to make a profound difference.

It’s not about giving in or watering down your principles. Its about finding a value proposition that appeal to 

The instincts that drive those who think alike as well as those who have different instinctual worldviews than your own.  Perhaps if we know where people are coming from there will be less of a propensity to discount them or their point to view. We can only progress where there is trust We need to coax people to act beyond their narrow tribal concerns That is the only road to sustainable change.  In the tine of our distant Stone age ancestors, working together was the key to survival  That is a good reason for WHY it’s worth reading this excellent book!