Why people get into furious rows on
social media explained
If you are wondering why your friends and family just
don’t understand where you are coming from with your reasoned political
argument on Facebook it may be worth asking them to listen — literally. A new
study has suggested the key to winning people over to your side of the argument
may be verbal rather written.
In a paper published in the journal Psychological
Science, scientists at University of California, Berkeley and the University of
Chicago found people who had verbal debates about various political issues were
likely to be persuaded by opponents’ argument than those who read them. For the
survey 300 people were asked to watch, listen or read arguments about war,
abortion and different genres of music then were asked to judge how well the
argument was communicated.
The scientists said they found those who disagreed
with the argument tended to “dehumanise” the communicator and regarded “having
a diminished capacity to either think or feel” but this happened far less
frequently when you hear their voice or see them speak.
Juliana Schroeder from Berkeley said this is because
communicating through voice makes the person speaking seem more reasonable and
human. She told the ‘Washington Post’: “One of us read a speech excerpt that
was printed in a newspaper from a politician with whom he strongly disagreed.
“The next week, he heard the exact same speech clip
playing on radio. He was shocked by how different his reaction was toward the
politician when he read the excerpt compared to when he heard it.”
Dr Schroeder said the study might help explain why
social media has had such a polarising effect on political debates in recent
years. “Many people receive most news from social media now. This can be
dehumanising, and may increase polarisation. It’s easy to imagine how this
could become cyclical; dehumanisation leading to more polarisation leading to
more dehumanisation.”
Caroline Mortimer
THE INDEPENDENT
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