RT @Dcruz_d: New publication alert! My first article is out in Political Behavior! In it, I ask: Are politicians more influenced by persona….

An early version of this paper led to a grant proposal about political discourse which, beginning this fall, will be graciously funded by @DFF_raad.

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Bottom line:. Even if we can't always change minds with more constructive arguments, we can change the quality of political discussion that we, ourselves, have with others—if we want it. Further results in the full paper:. 🔗 13/n.

However, improved debate ≠ persuasion. None of the treatments significantly affect issue attitudes, polarization, or certainty. Approaches to arguments shape how people reply, but not necessarily what they believe. (caveat: on issues they care about most). 12/n.

Further, features *unrelated to argument substance* increase arguments being seen as strong. Simply signaling openness to compromise increases perceptions your arguments is strong, you are well-informed, and you are ideologically moderate. 11/n.

Crucially, high-quality argumentation improves perceptions of the interlocutor: they are seen as more open-minded, informed, respectful, and reasonable—traits that in turn predict higher-quality replies. 10/n.

Second, another basic finding. For each feature of an argument:. (1) Respect begets respect.(2) Evidence elicits evidence.(3) Openness invites openness.(4) Disrespect provokes partisan attacks. When arguing about politics, you get what you give. 9/n

For example, signaling openness to compromise not only makes the reply more conciliatory, it also increases the probability that people will seek to justify their arguments. Respect, unsurprisingly, increases openness to compromise. Effects, overall, are complementary. 8/n.

Combining all beneficial features (evidence, openness, non-partisan, respect) doubles the probability of a high quality response. And these features also reinforce each other thru positive spillovers. 7/n.

First, put simply, how people argue matters a lot. Evidence-based, respectful, compromise-seeking, and non-partisan counter-arguments substantially increase the probability of High Quality replies. (HQ = justification/compromise+respectful+no partisan attacks). 6/n

Respondents then reply to the counter-argument. Replies are coded for whether:. (1) justify an argument.(2) signal openness to debate.(3) signal partisanship.(4) disrespectful. close-ended measures of openness to debate, pol. attitudes & perceptions of (LLM) interlocutor. 5/n.

Each part of the counter-argument is generated independently via separate LLM calls—similar to a vignette experiment with multiple treatments. This ensures that if a message is, say, “disrespectful,” its substantive content is otherwise held constant. 4/n.

Survey respondents write their opinion on a political issue they care about. An LLM then generates a counter-argument, randomizing the four features, 2×2×3×2 = 24 possibilities:. evidence/emotion x open/closed to compromise x in-/out-/non-partisan x respectful/disrespectful. 3/n

We focus on four core features of political debate:. (1) whether arguments are backed by evidence (or emotion).(2) whether they signal openness to compromise.(3) whether they come from a partisan (in-/out-/non-partisan).(4) whether they are respectful or disrespectful. 2/n.

🚨 New paper in @ScienceAdvances. Can changing how we argue about politics online improve the quality of replies we get?. @THeideJorgensen, @a_rasmussen, and I use an LLM to manipulate counter-arguments to see how people respond to different approaches to arguments. Thread 🧵1/n

RT @CurtisPuryear: New preprint! We developed new measurement tools to study moralization in ~2B X & Reddit posts and ~5M traditional media….

RT @KobiHackenburg: Today (w/ @UniofOxford @Stanford @MIT @LSEnews) we’re sharing the results of the largest AI persuasion experiments to d….

RT @rmichaelalvarez: Excited to report that this paper with @Jacob_Morrier is now published in @polanalysis! Interested in LLMs? Give it a….

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RT @_FelixSimon_: How harmful is GenAI around elections? Will it trigger a misinformation apocalypse and upend elections?. I am happy to fi….