Persuade with facts, not with personal details about the reader

Cardinal Grosbeak is a plate from The Birds of America by John James Audubon (1827-1838). The cardinal sings a clear, strong song. Clear facts are also strong.

More facts changed the opinions of more people than personal details about the reader did.

The study. Researchers from Oxford, LSE, Stanford, MIT and the UK AI Security Institute tested 76,977 UK adults in 3 online experiments. Each person talked with 1 of 19 AI models about a political issue. The team measured the change in opinion.

The finding. A prompt that told the AI to use facts and evidence persuaded 27% more than a basic prompt. Personal details about the reader added less than 1 point on a 0-100 opinion scale. More facts gave more persuasion. But the AI also made more errors.

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