Introduction
Hope-based Communication is a practical, five-shift approach anyone can use to base their daily work on the change they hope to see.
It was first developed by Thomas Coombes at Amnesty International in 2017 to help human rights groups adopt narrative strategies in response to authoritarian populism. It is now an open source tool shared under a creative commons licence for changemakers everywhere.
Online courses are available at Rogue Union. Hope-based communication trains people to use the five shifts in their daily work and hope-based strategy to develop bold new approaches to their work to change attitudes, behaviour and culture.
Hope as a Smart Strategy for Change
In this approach, we define hope as the belief that tomorrow can be better than today, if we take action. To be hope-based means to base our work on the change we hope to see happen.
We human beings have a built-in, instinctive negativity bias. This leads us to focus on problems, threats and the things we are against. We are often so focused on countering ideas and actions that we against, that we forget to think about how we present what we actually want and the underlying ideas we need to promote.
Hope-based is a corrective to this, focused on articulating alternatives so that we have a chance to make them happen.
Shifts
Shift 1: From Fear to Hope
How we feel affects our politics.
Changing people’s mind or winning their support depends on making them feel hopeful. Populism and authoritarianism thrive on fear and division, so changemakers should be wary of stoking these emotions. Instead, they should ask what emotions lead to the change they want.
Above all, hope is necessary for resistance. We need to believe change is possible, otherwise we might give up
Planned Parenthood’s Unstoppable campaign around Donald Trump’s first inauguration is an example of the need to keep supporters motivated in the face of setbacks. It helps people step out of their recency bias, reminding them that in a long-term perspective, our movements are powerful and have achieved much.
The science
Brain science suggests that fear is unhelpful for empathy and reflective thinking. Fear triggers our “fight or flight” response making us more reactive. By contrast, people who feel calm and in control are more open to changing, to care about others and to act.
This suggests that when changemakers create a constant sense of ‘crisis’, they increase fear that undermines the empathy, openness and motivation to act we need. Instead, we need to put the “progress” in “progressive” and make people feel change is possible.
Hope is a tool for dark times that we use to stay focused on constructive action when we face challenges.
Case study
In 2019, Ekrem İmamoğlu won the Istanbul mayoral election with a campaign based on Radical Love. His messaging (“It’s going to be alright, if we have hope”) was intentionally calm and inclusive, avoiding the confrontation sought by the ruling opposition party. The Radical Love playbook urged campaigners to ignore the populist, and have empathy for his supporters.
Taking Action
Name the fear. Articulate what is it about the fear that worries you. Naming is a step to feeling a sense of control. Then name what the opposite to those things are – no matter how radical or unlikely they might seem.
Think about how your strategy might be different if focused on achieving what you hope for rather than averting the things you fear. For example, creating a more participatory democracy rather than averting authoritarianism.
When you talk about what is going wrong, remember to also show people how we can make it right.
In hope-based thinking, we start by being mindful of our fear-based thinking and negativity bias.
Be mindful of whether you are operating from a place of fear or hope. Both have their place, but it’s important to be conscious and strategic about when to use them.
Shift 2: From Problem to Solution
What does change look like?
In shift two, we put the problem in the context of an alternative: showing people that change is possible. We try to put as much energy into showing that our solutions works as we do explaining the problem. We ask ourselves “what do we want people to do once their awareness has been raised”. And then move straight to that part of the work.
Focusing too much on the problem creates despondency. People know things are bad, what they need from social changemakers is an alternative. We should offer a plus not a minus: showing what change will bring, not just what it will take away.
Instead, changemakers can apply hope theory, which says that hope is a cognitive function based on three pillars:
- the goal – what a better society would look like
- the pathway – how we can make it happen – and
- gives them agency – by showing them their role in making change happen.
In doing so, they can shift the “Overton Window” by making radical ideas common sense through the simple means of talking about them more.
The Science
We have predictive brains that make decisions based on our past experiences, and which have evolved to be suspicious of the unfamiliar. This insight from brain science has huge implications for social change. We who want to bring about change therefore need to show people the change we want to see happen, to make it familiar, and make it possible for people to actually carry it out.
People cannot support, let alone carry out change, that they cannot first imagine.
Case study
Hope-based climate communications would focus on making people believe that a greener future is possible and desirable, and showing them what they can do to achieve it.
A Message From the Future video with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told a story looking back at an imagined implementation of the Green New Deal.
Taking Action
When you name the problem, also say what the solution is. Write down what you want to take out of the world. For example, “a world without … fossil fuels” becomes “a world with … solar power” or maybe a world where we consume less.
Shift 3: From Against to For
What do you want the narrative to be?
Instead of reacting to populists, we need to tell our own story. We need to articulate what we want the narrative to be. As Anat Shenker-Osorio says, we have to say what we are for, not just what we are against. Because what you fight, you feed.
The only way to avoid this “backfire effect” is to articulate your own message, values and story.
Rather than countering harmful narratives, articulate what you want the narrative to be, and grow it with your words and actions.
Saying what we are for often challenges us to share values that we fear are unpopular. But as Anat says: “Good messaging is not about saying what is popular. It is about making popular what needs to be said.”
The science
Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that when we repeat an opposing message or react to a populist, we reinforce them and their message. When we repeat a populist’s racist language even to condemn it, we risk subconsciously reinforcing it, because the sunlight of our attention makes things grow.
We have to be very careful how we document harms or harmful language to avoid reinforcing it. For example, keep an eye out for negation, passive tense and prefixes and replace them with what you are for. Instead of “refugees are not criminals”, ask what refugees are. When we are anto-capitalist or want to create a post-colonial society, define what we want instead.
Case study
Romanian women’s rights group Centrul Filia ran a campaign to make the value of “care” a more political concept, linking everyday acts of care to political issues like violence against women and childcare services.
Taking Action
Write down the things you are against. Now write what the opposite of those things are. Check if you have used contested concepts – words like “justice” or “freedom” that mean different things to different people.
Try to turn those into “accepted concepts” by articulating what they mean to you. Thus we move from concepts to deeper beliefs.
Shift 4: From Threat to Opportunity
How can people be part of your movement?
Activism often tries to guilt or shame people into changing. But powerful movements give people a sense of belonging and agency.
Rather than trying to control people through the threat of punishment, guilt or shame, let’s ask how we can encourage the beahviour we want instead.
Changemakers should carefully note the words of Brene Brown: “Shame is not a social justice tool. It does not evoke empathy and curiosity. It produces more fear, defensiveness, and helplessness.”
So the hope-based approach tries to shift from “name and shame” to “name and reframe”, showing people the new attitudes and behaviour we want them to adopt.
People learn behaviour from what they see and hear. So we can seel to elevate and amplify the ideas and actions we want them to adopt. We can also apply the spirit of deep canvassing to our wider social change work and get better at really listening to people.
The LGBTQ+ movement combined a focus on values and tactics like deep canvassing to create huge cultural shifts, using marriage equality referenda as a wedge issue to change wider attitudes. One tactic we can all adopt is changing people’s minds by showing them people like them changing their minds, such as parents accepting the gender or sexuality of their children.
Movement-building is about more than policies and messages, it is about creating a sense of belonging to our cause through symbols and everyday rituals that make people feel part of a community. Anger mobilises people for short-term actions like signing a petition, but hope organises people for sustainable participation in long-term change.
The science
We all have basic needs like security, but we also have higher needs like belonging. Changemakers can make a choice which needs they appeal to, but they should note the role that belonging plays in reinforcing values and political affiliation.
Research into identity-protective cognition and motivated reasoning explains why we are so prone to confirmation bias and resistant to being told we are wrong: our brain’s primary goal in processing information is to make sure we belong to our in-group.
Case study
What does it look like to take part in democracy? It’s not enough to warn of the dangers of populists or anti-democratic leaders. The real task is to make people care about democracy itself. That means helping them experience democracy, see themselves as part of it.
That is what Million Moments for Democracy did with their hope-based campaign in the Czech Republic in 2023. Instead of reacting to populists, the campaign told its own story: democracy is about voters, not politicians. Rather than warning of the threat of the populist, it offers people the opportunity to be part of democracy through their actions.
Taking Action
Think what feelings and needs you are appealing to in your audience, writing “threat” appeals on the left, “opportunity” appeals on the right. See if there might be higher needs in your audience that you can activate: a desire to be a good person, for human connection, for fulifllment and affirmation.
Think about the good in people you can activate, rather than trying to limit their bad sides?
Shift 5 – From Victim to Human
What does it look like for people to act on your values?
On a basic level, this shift is about making sure our stories tell the whole story of protagonists so that we see their resilience and aspiration, not just their suffering.
In hope-based strategy, it is also about using the stories we tell to provide social proof for the things we want, like welcoming refugees. The story we tell today is the action we take tomorrow.
Narrative Initiatve say that narratives are mosaics made up of many stories. So in hope-based strategy we try to identify the kinds of stories that bring our narratives and values to life. For example, stories of positive social contact between different groups in the hope of creating curiosity, understanding and empathy.
The science
Empathy and kindness are muscles we can train. We also need to distinguish between an empathic pain response (pity) and cognitive empathy (curiosity about the perspectives of people who are different from us). Unortunately, we cannot just tell people to forget their bias, but we can offer them new ways of thinking, training them to develop a more complex, varied idea about groups they previously viewed with fear, distrust or disgust.
Case study
The UN Human Rights Office’s #StandUp4Migrants initiative shows how a hope-based approach can shift public attitudes on migration by appealing to shared values like kindness, food, and community.
Using the 5 Shifts
The five shifts are a simple tool for shaping our story. They help us move beyond reacting to what we oppose, so we can show the world we want to build.
They are a practical tool for changing narratives and strategy. They apply insights from brain science to social change by getting changemakers to ask themselves questions.
Think of the shifts as prompts you can use every day. It is important to note that we never want to ignore the things on the left. The point is to have balance. We can put them in the context of the things on the right, or maybe focus our strategy more on what we want to achieve, not what we want to avoid.
It starts with taking a blank sheet of paper and drawing a line down the middle. You name the “from”, what you are against and then articulate the opposite or alternative.
You can find detailed instructions on using the five shifts in the hope-based communication training course at Rogue Union.
The hope-based approach is inspired by the work of Anat Shenker-Osorio.
Explore Further
- Hope-based training is available at Rogue Union
- Hope-based communications website and substack
- Seeing hope: A Visual Communications Guide for Human Rights
- Civic Story: A Narrative Communication Strategy Toolkit for telling the story of civil society
- Thriving Communities: A hope-based messaging guide for holding corporations accountable
- Be the narrative: How Changing the Narrative Could Revolutionize What it Means to do Human Rights
- The accidental magic of the hope-based shifts: Five things I learned applying the hope-based approach in practice
- Hope-based Communications Checklist
- Be the Narrative: How Changing the Narrative Could Revolutionize What it Means to do Human Rights
- Seeing Hope: Visual Communications Guide for Human Rights
- Communicating Women’s Rights with a hope-based approach
- Making the case for a more joyful approach to human rights
- The Role of Narrative Change in Influencing Policy
- Why Stories Matter: The Art and Craft of Social Change
- Narrative Change: Start Here
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA