My point today is not to stir up outrage. That’s because I myself don’t like outrage, even though it’s good for business.
But I find the following flip-flop story fascinating. It shows how a new belief is born, although at a mass mind level. And I think this can help you when you write copy.
So here goes, from today’s Axios World newsletter:
“President Biden ordered the U.S. intelligence community on Wednesday to ‘redouble their efforts’ to determine whether COVID-19 first emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan or through animal-to-human transmission.”
Redouble their efforts, huh?
That’s surprising. Because as you might remember, a year ago, there was exactly zero chance coronavirus came from a lab. Why exactly zero chance? Because scientists agreed. A few headlines from February and March 2020:
Financial Times: “Coronavirus was not genetically engineered in a Wuhan lab, says expert”
USA Today: “Fact check: Coronavirus not man-made or engineered but its origin remains unclear”
Science: “Scientists ‘strongly condemn’ rumors and conspiracy theories about origin of coronavirus outbreak”
Ok, on to human psychology. Here are a few things I believe to be true:
1. Individual human beliefs are driven by deep needs we are mostly not aware of
2. Beliefs are a mental shortcut for a complex underlying situation that we can’t keep in our heads
3. At the surface level, beliefs are summarized and justified by logical sound bites
Phew, that was boring, right? Because all that stuff I just told you is really abstract. You can’t really “see” it.
Our brains aren’t good at seeing how brains themselves work.
Fortunately, we can look at the mass mind.
It’s not a perfect proxy for individual human brains. But it can still be useful. Plus it’s so big and so slow-moving, allowing us more insight.
And that’s why I’m telling you about this corona story.
A year ago, there were certain underlying needs in the world. I’m not sure what they were, but they demanded the belief that corona is not lab-made. As a result, facts were found to support this belief, and only sound bites like the above headlines bubbled up to the surface. A belief was born.
Today, it sure sounds like the underlying needs have changed. And now the mass mind wants to believe, for whatever reason, in the lab-made origin, or at least its strong possibility.
So we are redoubling efforts to find facts to support this belief. And since the world is very complex, we’re sure to be successful. In fact, just now, I came across the following article by Matt Yglesias:
“The media’s lab leak fiasco: A huge fuckup, with perhaps not-so-huge policy stakes”
So that’s why I’m saying this can help you with copywriting. Because when you write copy, your real work is playing with those deep-down, hidden needs. You can give people logical sound bites, and it might help your case, but only when the right underlying conditions are there.
And maybe this corona origin story can make that real for you, can allow you to see it, so you can truly believe it.
That said, if you are interested in the strange politics of corona origins, here’s the article that put this whole topic on my radar. In case this beliefs-in-the-mass-mind stuff turns you on, take a look:
https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/