The Variable Persuasiveness of Political Rhetoric

Which types of political rhetoric are most persuasive? Politicians make arguments that share common rhetorical elements, including metaphor, ad hominem attacks, appeals to expertise, moral appeals, and many others. However, also highly multidimensional, making it difficult assess the relative persuasive power these elements. We report on a novel experimental design which assesses persuasiveness large number deploy set elements argue for against proposals across range UK issues. find modest differences in average effectiveness shared by arguments, but variation same type In addition revealing some argument-types more effective than others shaping public opinion, results have important implications interpretation survey-experimental studies field communication.