Title
Blame the Opponent! Effects of Multimodal Discrediting Moves in Public Debates.
Abstract
Abstract In political persuasion, the persuader, besides bearing logical arguments and triggering emotions, must present one’s own image (one’s ethos) of a credible and reliable person, by enhancing three dimensions of it: competence, benevolence, and dominance. In a parallel way, she/he may cast discredit on the opponent by criticizing, accusing or insulting, on the same three dimensions. The work provides a description and a typology of multimodal discrediting moves focusing on the discrediter’s multimodal behavior. Based on an Italian corpus of political debates, the analysis points out which facial expressions, gaze behavior, gestures, postures, and prosodic features are used to convey discredit concerning the three target features of competence, benevolence, and dominance. Finally, an experimental study is presented assessing the effects of the different types of discrediting moves on potential electors. Results show that casting discredit on the other’s competence while also performing gestures, and casting discredit on the other’s dominance without gesturing, makes arguments more shareable and convincing.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1007/s12559-012-9175-y
Cognitive Computation
Keywords
Field
DocType
Discredits,Social signals,Emotions
Social psychology,Persuasion,Gesture,Ethos,Artificial intelligence,Argument,Gaze,Blame,Psychology,Facial expression,Epistemology,Politics,Machine learning
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
4
4
1866-9964
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.65
5
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Francesca D'Errico120817.80
Isabella Poggi267168.83