Your brother-in-law does not believe climate change is real. You've sent him links to thousands of articles by scientists and scholars showing the strength of the case, but still... not buying it.
What can you do differently? Shankar Vedantam might tell you to appeal to the emotions, not the intellect. Our brains are capable of great reason and rationality, but it has those... other features.
He explores those with co-author Bill Mesler in Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain. You read the subtitle right: deceiving ourselves and others has its uses in getting through life.
Shankar Vedantam, an NPR regular and host of "Hidden Brain," weekends on JPR, is our guest.