active processing

Active processing — a long way to say 'thinking' — is rare in political conversations. We tend to know our arguments going in to a case (lawyer frame); we all already have our talking points. Active processing means thinking new thoughts. Talking about real life stories, asking questions that get them to go deeper, or simply asking them to keep explaining their point of view in more detail than the sound bites we're all fed. Debunking or arguing facts tends to be counter to active processing: you get into mutual "no it isn't" arguments very quickly. Instead, get people to keep talking beyond the disagreement.