The STILL Card

You already know the answer. That's the problem.

When someone you love shares something that isn't true, the first sixty seconds decide the rest of the conversation. And the things most of us do first, fixing it, warning them, sending the link, are the things most likely to make them dig in.

Counselors have a name for that urge. They call it the righting reflex. In a 2018 meta analysis of motivational interviewing, the counselor behaviors that come with it were linked to more pushback from the person, not less.

STILL is five things not to do in that first minute. Stop the fix. No threats. No instructions. No links they didn't ask for. And don't land it, which means don't win an argument they never entered. Then run the PAUSE Protocol, free here too.

Print it and keep it by the phone. Save the phone version for the group chat. When it keeps you in the room, tag @roottorx on Instagram with #SkepticalRevolution.

A conversation tool, not medical advice.

From Root to Rx, the science newsletter that makes sense of medicine.