Can the Communication Style of Social Media Videos Affect Listening Quality and Opinion Change?

Studies of opinion change suggest that disagreements online can contribute to attitude polarization, increasing the extremity of disagreement over political issues. However, very little empirical literature considers the role of listening quality. Can we use videos to motivate higher quality listening and reduce attitude polarization over social media? We fielded an online survey experiment that answers these questions, using a YouTube video containing political messages and allowing survey participants to respond to the video with a comment. We test whether different communication styles – a more inclusive deliberative intervention, personal storytelling and a less inclusive deliberative intervention, a rational-legal style message—impact listening quality and opinion change. We find that YouTube messages about a controversial political issue have a large impact on listening quality, regardless of communication style. We also find that storytelling can have persuasion effects, but only among voters who do not have an opinion on the policy being discussed. Among those who already hold an opinion on the issue, it is difficult to change people’s minds using short-form YouTube videos, regardless of listening quality.