Empathy in a Citizen Deliberation Experiment

Abstract

Despite increased scholarly attention, there is still limited knowledge on how empathy works in democratic deliberation. This article examines the role of empathy in citizen deliberation with the help of a deliberative experiment on immigration. First, a random sample of citizens was surveyed regarding their opinions on immigration. Based on their opinions, they were then divided into a permissive or a non-permissive enclave, and randomly assigned into likeminded or mixed-opinion groups for deliberation. After deliberation, they were surveyed anew. The study analyzes: (a) empathy differences between permissive and non-permissive participants; (b) changes in outgroup empathy toward immigrants as a result of deliberation; and (c) differences in prosocial behavior (i.e., donating to charity). The results show that the permissive respondents had more empathy, especially toward immigrants, than the nonpermissive respondents. Among participants, outgroup empathy increased during deliberation. Regarding prosocial behavior, the permissive participants donated more often to charity at the end of the experiment.

Seeing the Other Side? Perspective-Taking and Reflective Political Judgements in Interpersonal Deliberation

“…After having spent some time together, participants acquire information not only about each other's views on the issues under discussion, but also about each other's life experiences, families and other background characteristics. The presence of diverse perspectives should, thus, create a rich informational context that should further facilitate the process of perspectivetaking among participants (see Grönlund et al, 2017: 464 for a similar argument). 3 Second, nowadays, deliberative forums foster not only the fact-based argumentation, but also alternative and less formal modes of communication such as storytelling, narratives, testimony and humour.…”

Scaling up Deliberation: Testing the Potential of Mini‐Publics to Enhance the Deliberative Capacity of Citizens

“…Participating in deliberation within a minipublic has been found to generate more empathetic feelings and understanding among participating citizens toward others (Morrell 2010; Grönlund et al 2017; Muradova 2020). What is unknown is whether these effects extend to individuals who did not participate directly in a minipublic or similar deliberative process.…”

“…Batson et al (2005: 15) argue that individuals “feel for a stranger [...] to the degree that they perceive the stranger to be similar to themselves.” People may perceive the members of the minipublic as more similar to themselves – ordinary, laypeople with similar needs and interests. This perception of similarity can engender more empathic feelings in people toward other citizens whose lives may be different from theirs, particularly toward those in a disadvantaged position (Grönlund et al 2017). Nevertheless, these processes may be limited to face‐to‐face interactions, wherein empathic emotions can be easier to elicit.…”

Emotions and Deliberation in the Citizens’ Initiative Review

“…Given the centrality of the work of Marcus and his colleagues on emotions and deliberation, we asked about anger , anxiety , and enthusiasm . Various theorists have also claimed that empathy plays an important role in deliberation (see, e.g., Fleckenstein, ; Grönlund, Herne, and Setälä, ), but as one of us has argued, we agree that empathy is not itself an emotion (see Morrell, ). As an alternative concept related to empathy that is an emotion, we included sympathy among the possible responses.…”