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arXiv · 2303.16422

Critical Thinking Via Storytelling: Theory and Social Media Experiment

Brian Jabarian·Elia Sartori
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Abstract

In a stylized voting model, we establish that increasing the share of critical thinkers -- individuals who are aware of the ambivalent nature of a certain issue -- in the population increases the efficiency of surveys (elections) but might increase surveys' bias. In an incentivized online social media experiment on a representative US population (N = 706), we show that different digital storytelling formats -- different designs to present the same set of facts -- affect the intensity at which individuals become critical thinkers. Intermediate-length designs (Facebook posts) are most effective at triggering individuals into critical thinking. Individuals with a high need for cognition mostly drive the differential effects of the treatments.

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Brian Jabarian, Elia Sartori. 2023-03-29. Critical Thinking Via Storytelling: Theory and Social Media Experiment. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16422

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