adminDISAGREEMENTS are a fact of life, whether you’re online or off it. But it’s a fact universally acknowledged that arguments are frequently more entrenched on the Internet. Luckily, for the commenters and Facebook-feuders of the web, a new study from researchers at Cornell suggests that there are some specific techniques you can use to win arguments online. (Short of never engaging at all, of course, which is a victory of its own kind).
The study, which will be presented in April at the International World Wide Web Conference, analysed 18,000 threads in the subreddit r/changemyview over a 2,5-year period. The forum is an unusually open-minded place: Users post their opinions on topics ranging from comic books to capital punishment and invite people to persuade them that they’re wrong. If the original poster is persuaded, he awards his opponent a “delta,” the mathematical symbol for change; if he’s not persuaded, he does nothing. That last bit is important, because it allowed researchers to identify and analyse the arguments that actually change people’s minds. And while they were looking at r/changemyview specifically, Cornell’s Chenhao Tan – a PhD candidate in computer science and the corresponding author of the paper – said they believe their findings can be generalized to other online settings and social networks. So if you want to shut down the latest conspiracy meme on Facebook, or if you’d like to push back against a Sanders campaigner in your Tinder matches, try the following techniques:
Respond to the initial statement sooner rather than later.
Respond in groups: You’re more persuasive to the person you’re arguing with if other people are arguing your side, too.
Have a few back-and-forth exchanges with your opponent, but never go past three or four. Up to that point, your chance of persuading them is pretty good. But Tan says that “when the back-and-forth goes on for too long, your chances at persuasion become very low.”
Link to outside evidence.
Don’t quote the person you’re arguing with. They’ll usually interpret that as “nit-picking with their wording,” Tan says, and thus what you say is unlikely to sway their opinion.
Don’t act too intense – that scares people off. Stick to calm, even-keeled language.
Ironically, that sounds a whole lot like most online debates. — Washington Post
Online Reporter