Experiment: The Socratic Method

[slifty]

Hypothesis

Asking someone to consider a question instead of simply being told an answer provides a more authentic interaction that is more likely to motivate the reader to develop an accurate understanding of a situation (as opposed to reacting defensively and rejecting the new information).

Proposed intervention

Instead of presenting a reader with a fact check, convert the content of the fact check into a series of questions about the selected topic which help the reader hone in on the same thought process a fact checker might go through.

Concierge MVP

1. Select a fact check; identify the pool of research that went into its creation.
2. Develop a series of questions that get at the conclusions of the fact check.
3. Break down the research into (sourced) summarized pieces of relevant information which could be used to answer those questions.
4. Have a conversation with the reader over a text based chat, where the experimenter can ONLY ask questions (not make points).

Engineered MVP

1-3. The same steps 1-3 as Concierge...
4. Instead of having a text based conversation with the reader, use a chat bot to ask the questions from a pre-written script.

Associated research

{therapy? education? rhetorical approach has to be well studied....}

[knowtheory]

convert the content of the fact check into a series of rhetorical questions about the selected topic

For clarification do you mean rhetorical questions, or do you just mean questions premised on things the fact check asserts?

[slifty]

Good clarifying question -- I did not mean rhetorical question at all!

The naive idea is simply that instead of telling people things, asking questions that help people explore the space (and possibly reach the conclusion that would have been stated) would be a better approach.