Generalization of structured debate findings to open online platforms

Determine the extent to which the persuasive effects observed in this study—specifically, the increased odds of higher post-debate agreement when participants debate GPT-4 with and without personalization in a structured, time-constrained opening–rebuttal–conclusion format—generalize to unstructured, spontaneous discussions on social networks and other open online platforms.

Background

The paper measures persuasive effects by comparing pre- and post-debate agreement scores in controlled, structured, time-limited debates against human or GPT-4 opponents, with and without access to anonymized personal information for personalization. While this design supports causal inference, the authors note that the debate format may diverge from typical, spontaneous online interactions.

Because real-world social media conversations lack fixed stages, time limits, and role assignments, the authors explicitly acknowledge uncertainty regarding whether the observed effects—particularly GPT-4’s superior performance with personalization—would carry over to open, less structured online environments.