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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3678 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 11, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How many people are persuaded by watching a debate?

I have background in formal competitive debate (also known, confusingly, as forensics) so my expectations of what a 'debate' should look like are probably categorically higher than most people.

Which is to say, I expect the participants to have agreed upon a 'question' that is actually going to be discussed, and spend a decent portion of the debate hashing the actual meaning of that question out for a bit, THEN going into the actual informational/argument about that question, so we don't end up with two people effectively talking past one another for an hour or descending ever deeper into minutiae whilst evading the larger question that is the actual purpose of the debate.

Likewise, the ability to cite to reliable(ish) sources during the course of the debate should be expected.

And the moderator should be holding people to, e.g. time limits and a certain level of decorum.

So if I were watching that kind of debate, I think I might be persuaded one way or another if I were in the audience.

But 'persuasion' as a broad category wherein someone who was previously undecided on a matter and then comes down on one side or the other, or is convinced to switch their position, goes far beyond the mere content of the debate and includes the social status of the speakers, their charisma/likeability, and indeed even the reaction of other audience members.

So I'm willing to guess there's some number, probably around that 20% mark, of people who might actually watch a debate and have whatever their prior beliefs were changed in some way in favor of one or the other participant.

It just likely won't be due to one side or the other having a stronger argument.

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