Gesture, Gaze and Persuasive Strategies in Political Discourse

The paper investigates the use of gesture and gaze in political discourse, and presents an annotation scheme for the analysis of their persuasive import. A model in terms of goals and beliefs is illustrated, according to which persuasion is a case of social influence pursued through communication in which the persuader aims to influence the persuadee to pursue some goal while leaving him free to adopt it or not, and arguing how that goal is in the persuadee's interest. Two studies are reported on electoral debates of three politicians in Italy and France (Achille Occhetto, Romano Prodi and Segolene Royal), and an annotation scheme is presented through which the gesture and gaze items produced in some fragments of political discourse were analyzed as to their signal and their literal and indirect meanings, and classified in terms of the persuasive strategies they pursue, logos, ethos or pathos. The results of the two studies are presented, showing that the pattern of persuasive strategies found in the meanings of gesture and gaze of each politician is coherent with either the persuasive structure of the specific fragment analyzed or with the politician's general political strategy.