Perceptions versus Reality: Personal Narrative Persuasion in Anonymous Cross-Partisan Interactions on a Mobile Chat Platform

Narrative persuasion techniques have effectively altered attitudes within the contexts of canvassing, video presentations, and survey experiments. This study examines the efficacy of personal narratives, in comparison to evidence-based persuasive techniques, in online conversations among ordinary citizens. It investigates surveys and text from 1,169 United States citizens engaged in cross-partisan conversations about divisive political issues on DiscussIt, an innovative mobile chat platform. Results reveal that receiving personal narratives in online cross-partisan interactions significantly predicts participants' perceptions that their chat partner had a persuasive influence on their opinions. In contrast, evidence-based messaging significantly predicts the opposite. However, neither technique predicted observable attitude change in participants' political attitudes. This perception-reality disconnect highlights the need to better understand the avenues through which narrative-driven messages wield influence in political persuasion and prompts us to examine whether persuasion primarily manifests through perceptions rather than tangible attitude change, especially in dialogue across party lines.