Social media are nowadays fertile ground for debates that are often rich in arguments of persuasive value. In the present writing, we hypothesize that emotions play a significant role in determining the success of arguments on social media. In order to validate the hypothesis, we analyzed Change My View, an Internet forum on Reddit where the persuasiveness of the discussions among participants is explicit and regulated by specific norms. Our analysis revealed that arguments enjoying a higher degree of success were characterized by two particular emotions: anticipation and joy, which we interpret as belonging to engagement, a more general emotional dimension that includes them both. Such characteristics of successful arguments lead us to consider the persuasive experience on social media as analogous to a playful experience. Like in a game, in order to successfully take part in such a persuasive experience, certain requirements are needed: commitment and respect for the rules as well as joyful participation.
University of Florence, Italy
University of Florence, Italy
Chapter Title
Il peso delle emozioni nell’argomentazione sui social media
Authors
Gianmarco Tuccini, Goffredo Guidi
Language
Italian
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-329-1.11
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2021
Copyright Information
© 2021 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Competing, cooperating, deciding: towards a model of deliberative debate
Editors
Adelino Cattani, Bruno Mastroianni
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
168
Publication Year
2021
Copyright Information
© 2021 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-329-1
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-328-4
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-329-1
Series Title
Communication and Philosophical Cultures. Researches and Instruments
Series ISSN
2975-1152
Series E-ISSN
2975-1233