Help Me Reflect: Leveraging Self-Reflection Interface Nudges to Enhance Deliberativeness on Online Deliberation Platforms

TL;DR

This study investigates how different interface-based reflection nudges, such as personas and storytelling, can improve the quality and deliberativeness of online discussions through two user studies.

Contribution

It identifies effective reflection nudges and demonstrates their positive impact on deliberative quality in online platforms, providing guidance for interface design.

Findings

Persona promotes balanced viewpoints

Temporal prompts encourage individual perspectives

Storytelling enhances engagement and deliberation quality

Abstract

The deliberative potential of online platforms has been widely examined. However, little is known about how various interface-based reflection nudges impact the quality of deliberation. This paper presents two user studies with 12 and 120 participants, respectively, to investigate the impacts of different reflective nudges on the quality of deliberation. In the first study, we examined five distinct reflective nudges: persona, temporal prompts, analogies and metaphors, cultural prompts and storytelling. Persona, temporal prompts, and storytelling emerged as the preferred nudges for implementation on online deliberation platforms. In the second study, we assess the impacts of these preferred reflectors more thoroughly. Results revealed a significant positive impact of these reflectors on deliberative quality. Specifically, persona promotes a deliberative environment for balanced and opinionated viewpoints while temporal prompts promote more individualised viewpoints. Our findings suggest that the choice of reflectors can significantly influence the dynamics and shape the nature of online discussions.