@inproceedings{nabhani-etal-2025-storytelling,
title = "Storytelling in Argumentative Discussions: Exploring the Use of Narratives in {C}hange{M}y{V}iew",
author = "Nabhani, Sara and
Khatib, Khalid Al and
Pianzola, Federico and
Nissim, Malvina",
editor = "Chistova, Elena and
Cimiano, Philipp and
Haddadan, Shohreh and
Lapesa, Gabriella and
Ruiz-Dolz, Ramon",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 12th Argument mining Workshop",
month = jul,
year = "2025",
address = "Vienna, Austria",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.argmining-1.21/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.argmining-1.21",
pages = "217--227",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-258-9",
abstract = "Psychological research has long suggested that storytelling can shape beliefs and behaviors by fostering emotional engagement and narrative transportation. However, it remains unclear whether these effects extend to online argumentative discourse. In this paper, we examine the role of narrative in real-world argumentation using discussions from the ChangeMyView subreddit. Leveraging an automatic story detection model, we analyze how narrative use varies across persuasive comments, user types, discussion outcomes, and the kinds of change being sought. While narrative appears more frequently in some contexts, it is not consistently linked to successful persuasion. Notably, highly persuasive users tend to use narrative less, and storytelling does not demonstrate increased effectiveness for any specific type of persuasive goals. These findings suggest that narrative may play a limited and context-dependent role in online discussions, highlighting the need for computational models of argumentation to account for rhetorical diversity."
}<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modsCollection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
<mods ID="nabhani-etal-2025-storytelling">
<titleInfo>
<title>Storytelling in Argumentative Discussions: Exploring the Use of Narratives in ChangeMyView</title>
</titleInfo>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Sara</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Nabhani</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Khalid</namePart>
<namePart type="given">Al</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Khatib</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Federico</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Pianzola</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Malvina</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Nissim</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<originInfo>
<dateIssued>2025-07</dateIssued>
</originInfo>
<typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
<relatedItem type="host">
<titleInfo>
<title>Proceedings of the 12th Argument mining Workshop</title>
</titleInfo>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Elena</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Chistova</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Philipp</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Cimiano</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Shohreh</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Haddadan</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Gabriella</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Lapesa</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Ramon</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Ruiz-Dolz</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<originInfo>
<publisher>Association for Computational Linguistics</publisher>
<place>
<placeTerm type="text">Vienna, Austria</placeTerm>
</place>
</originInfo>
<genre authority="marcgt">conference publication</genre>
<identifier type="isbn">979-8-89176-258-9</identifier>
</relatedItem>
<abstract>Psychological research has long suggested that storytelling can shape beliefs and behaviors by fostering emotional engagement and narrative transportation. However, it remains unclear whether these effects extend to online argumentative discourse. In this paper, we examine the role of narrative in real-world argumentation using discussions from the ChangeMyView subreddit. Leveraging an automatic story detection model, we analyze how narrative use varies across persuasive comments, user types, discussion outcomes, and the kinds of change being sought. While narrative appears more frequently in some contexts, it is not consistently linked to successful persuasion. Notably, highly persuasive users tend to use narrative less, and storytelling does not demonstrate increased effectiveness for any specific type of persuasive goals. These findings suggest that narrative may play a limited and context-dependent role in online discussions, highlighting the need for computational models of argumentation to account for rhetorical diversity.</abstract>
<identifier type="citekey">nabhani-etal-2025-storytelling</identifier>
<identifier type="doi">10.18653/v1/2025.argmining-1.21</identifier>
<location>
<url>https://aclanthology.org/2025.argmining-1.21/</url>
</location>
<part>
<date>2025-07</date>
<extent unit="page">
<start>217</start>
<end>227</end>
</extent>
</part>
</mods>
</modsCollection>
%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Storytelling in Argumentative Discussions: Exploring the Use of Narratives in ChangeMyView
%A Nabhani, Sara
%A Khatib, Khalid Al
%A Pianzola, Federico
%A Nissim, Malvina
%Y Chistova, Elena
%Y Cimiano, Philipp
%Y Haddadan, Shohreh
%Y Lapesa, Gabriella
%Y Ruiz-Dolz, Ramon
%S Proceedings of the 12th Argument mining Workshop
%D 2025
%8 July
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Vienna, Austria
%@ 979-8-89176-258-9
%F nabhani-etal-2025-storytelling
%X Psychological research has long suggested that storytelling can shape beliefs and behaviors by fostering emotional engagement and narrative transportation. However, it remains unclear whether these effects extend to online argumentative discourse. In this paper, we examine the role of narrative in real-world argumentation using discussions from the ChangeMyView subreddit. Leveraging an automatic story detection model, we analyze how narrative use varies across persuasive comments, user types, discussion outcomes, and the kinds of change being sought. While narrative appears more frequently in some contexts, it is not consistently linked to successful persuasion. Notably, highly persuasive users tend to use narrative less, and storytelling does not demonstrate increased effectiveness for any specific type of persuasive goals. These findings suggest that narrative may play a limited and context-dependent role in online discussions, highlighting the need for computational models of argumentation to account for rhetorical diversity.
%R 10.18653/v1/2025.argmining-1.21
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.argmining-1.21/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.argmining-1.21
%P 217-227
Markdown (Informal)
[Storytelling in Argumentative Discussions: Exploring the Use of Narratives in ChangeMyView](https://aclanthology.org/2025.argmining-1.21/) (Nabhani et al., ArgMining 2025)
ACL