Public debates are a common platform for presenting and juxtaposing diverging views on important issues. In this work we propose a methodology for tracking how ideas flow between participants throughout a debate. We use this approach in a case study of Oxfordstyle debates-a competitive format where the winner is determined by audience votes-and show how the outcome of a debate depends on aspects of conversational flow. In particular, we find that winners tend to make better use of a debate's interactive component than losers, by actively pursuing their opponents' points rather than promoting their own ideas over the course of the conversation.
REF found that the side that can adapt to their opponents' discussion points over the course of the debate is more likely to be the winner.
Conversational flow in Oxford-style debates
ArXiv
ArXiv
Computer Science Physics Mathematics