[sopooneo]

To your point, the first step is to make them want to be convinced. For the irrational, changing beliefs is about many of the things we might consider heresy: appeals to authority, ad homonym attacks, etc. But much more often, I have found the key is if the person feels connected to you or the people making the counter argument.

You can not use logic to dissuade someone of a belief they arrived at emotionally. Instead, if you actually want to do it, you have to use emotion. It's our poor thining that makes us to try reason with the unreasonable.