Change My View: A Data Opportunity?, by Bryan Caplan

EconLog reader Peter Hurley sent me some interesting information on testing the efficacy of debate strategies.  Reprinted with Peter's permission:

Hey
Prof. Caplan,

I
have been reading your recent posts on econlog about the lack of research on
debating tactics, and I wanted to propose a potential research avenue that you
or someone you know might be interested in. 

I
moderate a forum on Reddit called "change my view" which is
essentially a debate forum, but specifically focused on people who have a view
but are open to changing it.  As a part of the forum, we have a protocol
for people to note and reward changes in their views.  Essentially, if
someone's post changes your view, you include a greek delta symbol in the
comment, and a bot comes around and gives the person who changed your view some
internet points. 

You
can access the site here: https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview

The
upshot of all this is that we have a tabulation of thousands of debates, and
thousands of posts within those debates which were effective at changing
someone's view.  I don't know exactly how to methodologically turn that
into a useful conclusion about what's effective, but I figure you or one of
your students or colleagues might be interested in giving it a crack. 

Good
luck in your future debating endeavors.  

Best,

Peter
Hurley

[Bryan again]

Sample bias is the obvious problem.  People who frequent this reddit are almost certainly unusual human beings.  But I still like the idea.  If anyone makes a serious go of it, I will blog it.

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