Mindset Shifts: What are They? Why do they Matter? How do they Happen?

Introduction

A report from the FrameWorks Institute, Mindset Shifts: What Are They? Why Do They Matter? How Do They Happen?, explores the best practices and most effective strategies for moving mindsets.

This report is intended as a resource for all those working on and funding mindset shifts.

Mindsets—fundamental, assumed patterns of thinking that shape how we make sense of the world and act in it—are highly durable with deep historical roots. They emerge from and are tied to social practices and institutions that are woven into the very fabric of society. As such, they tend to change slowly.

The research yields clear lessons and recommendations for how advocates, activists, funders, and other practitioners can maximize the impact of their efforts to change how we think about social issues in order to change the contexts and structures that shape our experiences and realities.

The report is organized as follows:

• Summary of lessons and recommendations.
  We begin with a summary of key takeaways from the research.
• What is the current state of knowledge about mindset shifts?
  We integrate insights from interviews with a wide range of experts and philanthropic leaders and detailed literature reviews. The discussion is organized around three questions:
  • What are mindsets and mindset shifts?
  • Why do mindset shifts matter?
  • How do mindset shifts happen?
• What are the overarching lessons that emerge from this research?
  Here, we provide a fuller discussion of the research takeaways, focusing on lessons that can guide future mindset shift work.
• How can those engaged in mindset shift work be most effective?
  The report concludes with strategic advice for those working on mindset shifts, building on the lessons and thinking through what it means for advocates and funders to put them into practice.

Contents

Introduction 4
Summary of Lessons and Recommendations 6
What Is the Current State of Knowledge about Mindset Shifts? 9
Lessons about Mindset Shift Efforts 36
How Can Those Engaged in Mindset Shift
Work Be Most Effective? 45
Appendix: List of Interview Participants 51
Endnotes 52
About Frameworks 61

Lessons

1. A mindset shift strategy is most appropriate for broad social change efforts.
2. Mindset change depends on factors outside of strategists’ control. Because of this, mindset shifts are realistic for some issues but not others.
3. Shifting mindsets is a major undertaking, but has huge benefits.
4. Shifting mindsets takes decades, not months or even years.
5. Finding and recognizing the common mindsets that run across specific policy change efforts creates opportunities for strategic partnerships
6. Early wins are important and can catalyze a positive spiral of mindset shifts and policy change.
7. When wins stop, change can stall.
8. The social segregation of groups along class, racial, religious, and ideological lines, coupled with increasingly fragmented media, complicates efforts to shift mindsets across the whole population.
9. New or altered mindsets often emerge from discrete groups within society.
10. Mindset shift efforts must focus on changing the mindsets of the public, not policymakers.
11. Mindset shifts that spread widely are more likely to generate fundamental social change.
12. If the goal is policy change, mindset shift efforts only make sense if an issue is currently salient or can realistically be made salient through strategic work.

Recommendations

• Recommendation #1: Start by examining key factors to assess when and whether a mindset shift strategy makes sense.
• Recommendation #2: Begin mindset shift work by answering three strategic questions and using seven guiding principles—but be prepared to adjust.
• Recommendation #3: Focus mindset shift efforts on the public.
• Recommendation #4: Coordinate work on mindset shifts within cross-cutting coalitions and funding groups.

Excerpts

Access Full Report

Mindset Shifts:What AreThey? Why DoThey Matter?How Do TheyHappen?

Watch Moving Mindset Webinars

FrameWorks hosted a three-part webinar series discussing the report’s recommendations and what they mean for progressive change and those working to make it happen.

• Part 1: Moving Mindsets: How to Shape a Strategy
  In moments of political and cultural upheaval, change feels necessary, but also possible. Can we use this time to mobilize people to think differently about social issues and unlock real change? The latest report provides a roadmap for advocates, activists, and funders. Want to change hearts and minds? Shift policy? Bring about structural change? It starts with knowing what mindsets are—and aren’t—and what it takes to shift them.
• Part 2: Moving Mindsets:The Public Imperative for Policy Change
  Additional work is needed to take advantage of and reinforce these shifts. That’s where policy change comes in. Mindset shifts make policy change more conducive—and policy wins deepen the mindset shifts, which in turn fuels more policy change. So how do we capitalize on this dynamic to bring about lasting change?
• Part 3: Moving MindsetsBuilding Momentum
  Immediate and ongoing work is needed to take advantage of and reinforce these shifts. That’s where planning for short term and long term policy wins comes in. So how do we support and build upon this dynamic to bring about lasting change

Explore Further

• Funding Narrative Change, Power and Systems
• Changing Our Narrative About Narrative: The Infrastructure Required for Building Narrative Power
• Conditions to Flourish: Understanding the Ecosystem for Narrative Power
• Making Change: What Works?
• 10 Things to Know about How to Influence Policy with Research
• Windows and Cycles: How Policy gets Made
• The Social Change Grid: A Framework for Understanding Social Change