Diplomacy online: A case of mistaking broadcasting for dialogue

Abstract

Online discussions can fuel perceptions of misalignment, disagreement, conflict or even polarization. In this study, we look at everyday diplomatic expressions that could buffer this. We use automated and manual coding to analyze diplomatic behaviour in online discussions and its consequences for discussion sentiment. We analyze Reddit forums with differing norms: civil (N = 4594 comments), incivil (N = 2126) and social support subreddits (N = 1401). The automated content analysis shows that diplomatic behaviour occurs but does not affect the subsequent discussion. The manual analysis reveals why: discussions consist of disjointed statements rather than dialogue, making diplomacy inconsequential. These results have consequences for the field. First, what appears to be an escalating dialogue might actually be a string of personal attitudes broadcasted in a shared space. Second, the usefulness of automated content analysis in studying interaction dynamics is limited because of difficulties distinguishing broadcasting from dialogue.

Mitigating Perceived Polarization by Acknowledging Subjectivity: An Experimental Study of the Impact of Differently Phrasing Comments in Online News Discussions

“…the more polarized a topic is, the higher the need for subjectivity in order to maintain a constructive atmosphere, as it indicates that the opposing poles are simply different points of view regarding the same issue, instead of an insurmountable clash of facts. In the context of potentially contentious discussions, general communication rules regarding diplomacy might thus overrule local (discussion-specific) expression norms (see Roos et al, 2023b for similar findings in the context of Reddit). This diplomacy is arguably less needed in discussions about non-polarized topics where opinion differences are less insurmountable and the constructive climate is less under threat, making people more prone to follow local expression norms (e.g., expressing oneself non-subjectively in response to non-subjective statements).…”

“…Importantly, we found these effects with a rather minimal manipulation while maintaining the rest of the discussion constant. This indicates that people consider subtle aspects of the form of communication as indicative of the relationship between interaction partners (Koudenburg et al, 2017;Roos et al, 2024).…”

“…Namely, through the addition of words or phrases that do not carry much content information, such as "maybe" or "uhuh", but do carry relational information (Roos et al, 2024). People use lengthiness to show that they leave space for and care about each other's opinions in order to maintain good relationships.…”

“…Lastly, the generalizability of the results of this study to other social media platforms and to other samples is uncertain. For example, in some discussion groups unconstructive behavior might be the norm (Roos et al, 2023b). Subjectivity might further have another communicative function depending on culture, consider, for example, the difference in frequency of "I" references (Na & Choi, 2009) and opinion expression (Huang, 2005) between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.…”