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

Abstract

A healthy democracy needs citizens to make reflective political judgements. Sceptics argue that reflective opinions are either nonexistent or rare. Proponents of deliberative democracy suggest that democratic deliberation is capable of prompting reflective political reasoning among people. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. This article offers a bridge between psychology and political theory and proposes a theory of perspective-taking in deliberation. It argues that under the right conditions, deliberation induces more reflective judgements by eliciting the process of perspective-taking – actively imagining others’ experiences, perspectives and feelings – in citizen deliberators. Two institutional features of deliberative forums are emphasized: the presence of a diversity of viewpoints and the interplay of fact-based rational argumentation and storytelling. I test the plausibility of this theory using a case study – the Irish Citizens’ Assembly – thereby, relying on qualitative in-depth interview data and quantitative survey data. I further substantiate my findings with a laboratory experiment.

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

“…This study also speaks to the findings of the contact theory, which posits that interpersonal contact across lines of nationality, race and social class results in more empathetic, and less prejudicial attitudes and heightened ability for perspective taking – seeing the world from someone’s else vantage point (Pettigrew and Tropp 2011; Reich and Pubhoo 1975). In a similar vein, the latest research finds that one of the crucial features of interpersonal deliberation eliciting and facilitating the processes of empathetic imaginings during deliberations is the presence of diverse and opposing viewpoints (Muradova, 2020). The present study expands on these findings with an evidence that mere exposure to counter‐attitudinal attitudes that a minipublic considered during deliberations can evoke empathic feelings toward the other side, also among non‐participants.…”

“…As Sharon Krause posits, deliberation that lacks empathy “cannot provide a basis for legitimate, justified democratic decision making that truly takes all into consideration” (2008: 83). Recent empirical research has shown that consideration of different perspectives on the issue, in particular those of the opposing side, requires being empathetic toward others’ perspectives and feelings (Muradova 2020).…”

“…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.…”

“…Prior research has studied how minipublics affect deliberating individuals’ values and attitudes by boosting the coherence of their policy attitudes, democratic legitimacy beliefs, political efficacy, complexity of thinking, the quality of political knowledge and judgements (Fishkin 2009; Grönlund et al 2010; Himmelroos and Christensen 2014; Jennstål 2019; Lindell et al 2017; Luskin et al 2002; Muradova 2020; Suiter et al 2016b). More recently, attention has turned to whether such effects scale to the wider citizenry (Boulianne 2018; Felicetti et al 2016; Ingham and Levin 2018; Knobloch et al 2019).…”

Making the Case for Democracy

“…Legislator-to-citizen communication in the tradition of deliberative theory may help overcome some of the weaknesses of misperception-correcting interventions. They build on the insight that individuals are more likely to rethink attitudes if conversations are conducted in a respectful manner that acknowledges the basic legitimacy of others' positions (Muradova 2021). Although targeted at specic issues rather than strengthening citizen commitment to democracy across the board, the results of numerous eld-experiments support the importance of non-judgmental approaches to attitudinal change such as perspective getting (Kalla and Broockman 2020).…”