• Dialogue is collaborative: two or more sides work together toward common understanding.
  • Debate is oppositional: two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong.

• In dialogue, finding common ground is the goal.
  • In debate, winning is the goal.

• In dialogue, one listens to the other side(s) in order to understand, find meaning and find agreement.
  • In debate, one listens to the other side in order to find flaws and to counter its arguments.

• Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participants point of view.
  • Debate affirms a participant's own point of view.

• Dialogue reveals assumptions for re-evaluation.
  • Debate defends assumptions as truth.

• Dialogue causes introspection on ones own position.
  • Debate causes critique of the other position.

• Dialogue opens the possibility of reaching a better solution than any of the original solutions.
  • Debate defends one's own positions as the best solution and excludes other solutions.

• Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.
  • Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.

• In dialogue, one submits ones best thinking, knowing that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than destroy it.
  • In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.

• Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.
  • Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.

• In dialogue, one searches for basic agreements.
  • In debate, one searches for glaring differences.

• In dialogue one searches for strengths in the other positions.
  • In debate one searches for flaws and weaknesses in the other position.

• Dialogue involves a real concern for the other person and seeks to not alienate or offend.
  • Debate involves a countering of the other position without focusing on feelings or relationship and often belittles or deprecates the other person.

• Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of the answer and that together they can put them into a workable solution.
  • Debate assumes that there is a right answer and that someone has it.

• Dialogue remains open-ended.
  • Debate implies a conclusion.

Adapted from a paper prepared by Shelley Berman, which was based on discussions of the Dialogue Group of the Boston Chapter of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR).