Persuasion Wars as a Useful Tool for Teaching Social Influence: A Replication With Direct Measure of Pedagogical Effectiveness

Background Persuasion Wars are exercises for teaching social influence that have not been directly assessed with the use of students' knowledge gain as an indicator. Objective This study aimed to establish the extent to which these exercises led to students' knowledge increase in comparison to traditional teaching method. Method In a between subject design, 142 undergraduate students participated in two exercises: Persuasion Wars or Article Analysis. Pre-test and post-test measurements of students' knowledge were collected to compute knowledge gain scores. At the end of the study, an exercise evaluation survey was distributed among students. Results Both teaching methods increased students' knowledge about social influence. Regardless of the topic, students from Persuasion War group gained more knowledge when compared to students from Article Analysis group. Students assessed both teaching methods to a similar extent. Conclusion Persuasion Wars may serve as a useful teaching method in familiarizing students with the basic concepts of social influence despite being rated similarly to a more traditional activity. Teaching implications To improve the teaching outcomes of classes concerning basic topics of social influence, teachers should consider the use of Persuasion Wars exercises as well as should incorporate the use of a direct assessment of pedagogical effectiveness to avoid misleading predictions.