After a lot of testing, they hit on a message that got a powerful response: they asked subjects to “imagine an America where you can’t pronounce anyone’s name,” then showed them a series of non-Western names and asked, “Can you recall a time where people were laughing at someone who messed up an ethnic name? Do some people use political correctness to make others feel dumb or get ahead?” By arousing people’s sense of humiliation in an everyday situation—trying to pronounce an unfamiliar name—they hit a nerve. Once they had hooked people with this message, they escalated, feeding them stories
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