[WATCH]:The Key Reason Why The 'Yes' Campaign Won The SSM Vote

In 2017, the 'Yes' Campaign for Same Sex Marriage won the Postal Vote. They managed to convince a majority of Australians to vote 'yes' for Same Sex Marriage.

How did they succeed?

It has to do in large part with the 'dark art of framing':

How you frame an issue can bias the conclusion.

The 'Yes' campaign framed the SSM postal vote as a vote for the freedom of an oppressed minority. Thus if anyone opposed the vote, they were immediately seen as 'bigoted' and anti-love.

It was very clever, but also disingenuous: there was no engagement with the actual arguments of those supporting traditional marriage.

As the above video points out:

Often arguments end up unfairly skewed by the information they include or leave out. If you understand how framing works, you’ll have a better chance of seeing through weak arguments and appreciating good ones. '

Jeff Myers

That's worth remembering as we engage the issues polarising our society.