Discover the secrets of persuasion through real online debates from Reddit's r/changemyview. This masterclass explores how language, expertise, authenticity and tone influence opinion change, revealing what makes arguments succeed or fail, and how researchers turn digital conversations into insights about communication and persuasion.
We have all seen the start of a social media debate: someone posts an opinion on British carbonara, states that either Messi or Ronaldo is the GOAT or questions whether people from the US should be called Americans, and the comments fill up with people disagreeing and trying to change others’ views. Some of those arguments go nowhere, some are more convincing. This masterclass asks what strategies dedicated debaters employ to persuade others.
We will explore r/changemyview, a Reddit community where people post an opinion and invite strangers to challenge it. When a comment changes their mind, they award it a delta, which gives researchers a rare insight into which arguments demonstrably worked within the community itself. Using real examples, we will look at how persuaders open a reply, when they use a personal story, how they position themselves as experts, to what extent they manage to appear authentic and whether being polite or rude really has an impact on debaters’ chances at being persuasive.
You will see how we as researchers of language and digital media can turn such online discussions into data, and we will ask whether language itself holds the key to spotting the difference between a winning comment and a losing one. You will also be invited to reflect on how you argue with friends and strangers. At the end you may ask yourself: Would you ever award yourself a delta for being a good debater?
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