Abstract
Online chat functions as a discussion channel for diverse social issues. However, deliberative discussion and consensus-reaching can be difficult in online chats in part because of the lack of structure. To explore the feasibility of a conversational agent that enables deliberative discussion, we designed and developed DebateBot, a chatbot that structures discussion and encourages reticent participants to contribute. We conducted a 2 (discussion structure: unstructured vs. structured) × 2 (discussant facilitation: unfacilitated vs. facilitated) between-subjects experiment (N = 64, 12 groups). Our findings are as follows: (1) Structured discussion positively affects discussion quality by generating diverse opinions within a group and resulting in a high level of perceived deliberative quality. (2) Facilitation drives a high level of opinion alignment between group consensus and independent individual opinions, resulting in authentic consensus reaching. Facilitation also drives more even contribution and a higher level of task cohesion and communication fairness. Our results suggest that a chatbot agent could partially substitute for a human moderator in deliberative discussions.
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