=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2588/paper28
|storemode=property
|title=Contradictory Statement as a Basis for Conflict Resolution Strategies
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2588/paper28.pdf
|volume=Vol-2588
|authors=Andriy Peleshchyshyn,Solomiia Albota
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/cmigin/PeleshchyshynA19
}}
==Contradictory Statement as a Basis for Conflict Resolution Strategies==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2588/paper28.pdf
Contradictory Statement as a Basis for Conflict
Resolution Strategies
Andriy Peleshchyshyn, Solomiia Albota
Lviv Polytechnic National University
12, Bandera Str. 17, 79013 Lviv, Ukraine
Andrii.M.Peleshchyshyn@lpnu.ua, Solomiia.M.Albota@lpnu.ua
Abstract. The issue of contradictory nature of the Reddit social network dis-
cussion has been raised. The section of “Unpopular Opinion” as a source of us-
ers’ comments with the most conflicting matter has been chosen. It is declared
that contradictory statement coincides with the title of the ‘Unpopular section’
rubric in case its implicit nature is manipulative. Initial statement refers to the
very first comment of the contradictory statement and triggers next and further
comments (NC and FC). The comments to the conflict statement using linguis-
tic markers and manipulative contexts have been analyzed. Phrases and sen-
tences marked with manipulative, implicit or explicit nature of utterance have
been found and grouped. Conflict resolution strategies as a key to comprehend
the insight of opposed comments and their frequency have been regarded. The
algorithm of sequence of step analysis concerning the Reddit social network
comment system has been considered. Other contradictory statements have
been selected for future analysis and thorough research.
Keywords: contradictory statement, initial statement, next comment (NC), fur-
ther comment (FC), conflict resolution strategies
1 Introduction
The human nature is contradictory itself. If it comes to interaction in society, one has
always bear in mind: conflict situation is inevitable. To manage conflict in an effec-
tive way a communicator has to find common areas of agreement, agree on solutions
to satisfy each other’s demands and always be ready to make a right decision if the
conflict remains unresolved. It is worth noting that a capacity to respond to other peo-
ple’s viewpoints is considered healthy and true way of communication. If there is a
dead end, the best choice – to disengage and leave your interlocutor emotionally bal-
anced.
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attrib-
ution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) CMiGIN-2019: International Workshop on Conflict Management in
Global Information Networks.
2 Studies referring to the issue
Currently, while communicating people face endless meaningless discussion which
may lead to a conflict situation. Phenomenon of conflict is discovered in communica-
tion research, namely contact linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics as well.
Preliminary, conflict situations occur due to language peculiarities in terms of re-
gional and political characteristics. A particular branch dealing with language con-
flicts is called contact linguistics [1, 2]. Here, conflict is considered in terms of lan-
guage or personal contact. The reasons of language conflict can be the following:
opposing levels of evaluation, moral values, opinion patterns. It has an impact on self-
contemplation, child training, education and group instincts. Sociologists refer to the
term conflict as disagreements which involve fearful conditions (implicit and explic-
it), preferences and moral principles, the aim of which should strongly differ from
those of another representative group in order to balance the opposition or to stick to
your area of interest [3].
3 Analysis of the conflict discussion sections
There are certain types of language conflicts (e.g. between people of minorities and
majorities, one or more language communities) when it comes to territoriality princi-
ples, linguistic discrimination, etc. In this paper, we do not intend to define language
conflicts, but they relate to conflict situations people suffer from, as being predomi-
nated by language preferences. Here, we consider conflict situations in social network
Reddit. We refer to the section “Unpopular opinion” as there are the most contradicto-
ry statements of all other sections which may trigger crucial conflict resolution strate-
gies
(https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/dbtzpg/giving_scholarships_b
ased_on_minority_status/). In order to deal with any of the following contradictory
situations, let us provide the definitions of the crucial conflict resolution strategies:
1. Avoiding – ignoring the contradictory situation, taking out of confusing conversa-
tion, leaving it unexpectedly without solving it.
2. Competing – assertive intentions to prove your rightness and end up a dialogue
with your own statement.
3. Accommodating – taking position “in the middle” trying to cooperate and not to let
“the rebellion” spread.
4. Collaborating – offering a shared solution to overcome the issue.
5. Compromising – finding the neutral solution to the issue, which does not have to
please anyone but will be fair enough in the particular situation.
It must be noted that those five strategies are common in oral communication, but
there is an attempt to apply these techniques in verbal communication.
There are lively discussion statements and comments from different users in social
network Reddit. We allocate those statements using linguistic markers of manipula-
tion, implicit and explicit influences, contradiction, arguments, approval, disapproval,
etc. [4 - 13]. Each statement is marked by rubric, e.g. Social, Politics. The first Figure
is a statement to be discussed, followed by next figures with user’s comments. We
analyze the comments referring closely to the statement and those having any features
of crucial conflict resolution strategies (Fig. 1, Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Contradictory Statement
Fig. 2. Initial comment
After initial comment we define such linguistic markers in next comments (NC) (Fig.
3) and further comments (FC) (Fig. 4). The NC are defined when there are linguistic
markers which indicate any of the above-mentioned conflict strategies. The first NC
and its FC to the initial comment are as follows:
NC: Some people feel that way, others don't (accommodating),
FC: Fun fact, and I'm not even sure how this affects the conversation, but (collabo-
rating), That would imo actually solve the problem (collaborating), Something to
consider though is that (accommodating), The only way to help bridge the gap
is (compromising), It’s not very relevant given the fact that (avoiding), Nobody
cares what they think (competing), Not gonna lie (avoiding), believe it or not
(avoiding), Well that’s a huge assumption that (avoiding), I thought the same thing
too, just wrote that in case it was (accommodating), This was certainly a fact! (col-
laborating), Guys, I think we all think this is interesting (collaborating), My teacher
in highschool did the same thing (collaborating), I see your point. But, honestly
(collaborating), Even if that were true, the gap still will continue (competing), Oth-
erwise if you think life is fair in any sense, you couldn't be any more wrong (ac-
commodating), You’ve got to be rich to even think that way (competing)
Fig. 3. Next comments (followed by the initial ones)
Each ‘next comment’ has its own comment which starts with “Continue this
thread”→ (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Further comments to the ‘next comment’
The second NC and its FC to the initial comment are the following:
NC: There are scholarships for white guys at black schools, not all but some do
offer it (compromising)
FC: - (Fig. 5)
Fig. 5. Comments with ‘dead end’
In Fig. 5 the next comment could have been extended, but the answer ‘yes’ ended
up the dialogue.
The third NC and its FC to the initial comment are as follows:
NC: You know what's also bullshit? Why is one somehow more offensive than the
other? (competing),
FC: Wait people are getting free college because they're rich? (competing), More
importantly how (competing), As far as Im aware (accommodating), that really
didn't anwer my question (avoiding)
The fourth NC and its FC to the initial comment are as follows:
NC: The sad thing is that.. (avoiding)
FC: That was part of my friends’ dilemma (collaborating) (Fig. 6)
Fig. 6. Comments with ‘no-answer’
In Fig. 6 the conversation failed, so none of the technique mentioned resulted in
dead speech end.
The fifth NC and its FC to the initial comment are as follows:
NC: I completely agree with you (accommodating)
FC: Your comment is indicative of the fact that (collaborating), thanks for the in-
teresting perspective (collaborating)
One conflict situation generated one statement implying contradictory insight fol-
lowed by five next comments and their further comments, which were considered as a
basis for identifying conflict strategies being applied.
In Fig. 7 there is an algorithm covering the general structure of the Reddit social
network comment system.
Contradictory
statement
Initial
comment
Comment
Comment
section
Further
comments
Comment
Fig.7 Algorithm of sequence of step analysis concerning the Reddit social network
comment system
In Fig. 8 there is an algorithm covering the special cases of the previous Figures 1-
6, namely, those comments where dialogues ended up in an unexpected way or failed
due to rhetorical questions or users’ lack of interest.
Contradictory
statement
Initial
comment
Comment
Comment
section
Further
comments
Dead end in Conversation
conversation failure
Fig.8 Algorithm of sequence of the previous Figures 1-6 of the Reddit social net-
work comment system
The following Reddit statements will be beneficially analyzed and compared be-
tween each other to fully detect the capacity of conflict situations in a social network
environment.
4 Conclusions
The unexpected ending for any of the communicators may result in a conflict situa-
tion in communication. In this paper a model of conflict situation and its possible
strategic solving principles were considered. The study was conducted using the Red-
dit social network, mainly its discussion section with statement and its comments. The
analysis of linguistic markers of discussion was performed. To define the ways of
dealing with a conflict statement, the strategic resolution principles were applied to
the comments. As a result, five different comment sections were allocated. The fre-
quency of resolution of these conversations was calculated (see Table 1).
Table 1. Table of frequency of conflict resolution strategies of conversations.
Accommodating
Comment section
Compromising
Collaborating
Competing
Avoiding
1 3 6 4 1 3
2 0 0 0 1 0
3 0 0 1 0 3
Accommodating
Comment section
Compromising
Collaborating
Competing
Avoiding
4 0 1 1 0 0
5 1 2 0 0 0
In general, avoiding and competing techniques dominated in these comments. They
show that the discussion was active and users equally craved for prompt result of
conversation. Compromising was hard to obtain. Accommodating was characterized
with delicate polite answers. The most frequent resolution technique was collaborat-
ing, as people lively demonstrated their awareness of the statement.
One dialogue came to a dead end referring to either not being appealing, informa-
tive enough, or users ceased their speculation on that point. Another dialogue re-
mained open, the answer was not given as the user considered the questions rhetorical
or ironical.
The contradictory statement was not rather solved but bombarded with various
opinions, facts, evidences, life stories and user’s own experience.
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