TY - JOUR
T1 - Ideology, attitude change, and deliberation in small face-to-face groups
AU - Gastil, John
AU - Black, Laura
AU - Moscovitz, Kara
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was completed with funding from the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund. For assistance with the collection and coding of data used in this study, thanks go to Jeannette Burkett, Tricia Gardinier-Vos, Rick Granados, Todd Kelshaw, Kevin Sager, and Alyssa Warner. Thanks also go to the many graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Washington who assisted with the transcription of the small group discussions described herein. For feedback on an earlier version of this article, thanks go to Joseph Cappella, Vincent Price, and Peter Muhlberger.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - Previous research has found that face-to-face deliberation can result in aggregate shifts in participants' political views. What is less well known is how such attitude changes vary depending on individual attributes and the nature of a group's deliberation. The present study extends prior research by exploring the relationship between participant ideology and attitude change in small, face-to-face groups. To test a set of hypotheses and research questions, 57 zero-history groups discussed three different public problems for 30-60 minutes, and each participant completed pre- and postdiscussion questionnaires. Participant ideology had a clear association with changes on specific discussion-related issues, but participants from every ideological group experienced increased differentiation between ideologically distinct attitudes. Within-group variance in attitude change was positively correlated with average group scores on self-reported measures of deliberation, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The conclusion discusses these and other findings in relation to future research and public deliberation programs.
AB - Previous research has found that face-to-face deliberation can result in aggregate shifts in participants' political views. What is less well known is how such attitude changes vary depending on individual attributes and the nature of a group's deliberation. The present study extends prior research by exploring the relationship between participant ideology and attitude change in small, face-to-face groups. To test a set of hypotheses and research questions, 57 zero-history groups discussed three different public problems for 30-60 minutes, and each participant completed pre- and postdiscussion questionnaires. Participant ideology had a clear association with changes on specific discussion-related issues, but participants from every ideological group experienced increased differentiation between ideologically distinct attitudes. Within-group variance in attitude change was positively correlated with average group scores on self-reported measures of deliberation, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The conclusion discusses these and other findings in relation to future research and public deliberation programs.
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U2 - 10.1080/10584600701807836
DO - 10.1080/10584600701807836
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:38949109921
SN - 1058-4609
VL - 25
SP - 23
EP - 46
JO - Political Communication
JF - Political Communication
IS - 1
ER -