Artificial facilitation: Promoting collective reasoning within asynchronous discussions. Issue 3 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wyss, Dominik; Beste, Simon
• Is Part Of: Journal of information technology & politics. Volume 14:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 214
• Page End: 231
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: Artificial facilitator -- asynchronous online discussion -- collective reasoning -- deliberation within; Electronic government information -- Periodicals; Internet in public administration -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; 320.0285
• DOI: 10.1080/19331681.2017.1338175
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1933-1681

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Online forums have become prominent in deliberative research as venues for infusing democracies with additional participatory elements. However, forums are criticized as being unsuitable for high-quality discussions as they predominantly induce self-expressive talk with little prospect for deliberative virtues. Drawing on the "argumentative theory of reasoning, " we hypothesize that an artificial facilitator (AF) ameliorates deliberative virtues by spurring interactions among the users and promoting knowledge gain. In a randomized field experiment, we show that the AF indeed enhances interaction, but only partially increases knowledge gain. Psychological variables mediate whether participants learn more in a facilitated online forum.