Online Deliberation Experiment
Project Description
This random control trial is being led by Professor Graham Smith (Southampton) and answers a number of academic and policy relevant research questions:
- How do randomly-selected citizens behave when given the opportunity to participate in a large-scale online consultation event? To what extent can their interactions be understood as ‘deliberative’?
- What impact does involvement in deliberation have on the policy knowledge and policy and civic attitudes of those who take part?
- How effective is a deliberation in achieving recommendations which can usefully inform public policy and practice?
- What drives opinion change: information alone or information plus deliberation?
Participants in the experiment will be randomly-selected from Ipsos-MORI’s online panel and divided into the following groups, each containing at least 1000 individuals:
- Treatment group 1: Participants in online deliberative event
- Treatment group 2: Participants accessing information only
- Control group
The deliberation group (Treatment 1) will be able to discuss the policy-relevant topics with each other on-line in a moderated, user-friendly environment for three weeks. The information-only treatment group (Treatment 2) will be able to access a website that has the same interface (skin) as the deliberation group, but with no opportunity to interact with other individuals. There will be a space for them to make comments in response to the question (but crucially, unlike participants in the deliberation, they will not see anyone else’s responses). Every two days ALL treatment group participants will receive new questions with prompts and background information. All participants, including the control group, will undertake two surveys at the same times, namely pre- and post- the online event.
Progress to Date (2008/9)
The project has contracted much of the work to Ipsos-MORI which has access to an online research panel and is building a bespoke on-line platform in which to host participants. Ipsos-MORI will also supply the moderation resources and a comprehensive data base.
A pilot deliberation involving around 100 participants was carried out for two weeks beginning on 4th August 2008. This resulted in re-design of the on-line platform, the format and presentation of input materials and moderation style. Feedback from participants about the deliberative experience was very encouraging, as was evidence of the constructive and respectful nature of the dialogue around a controversial, policy-relevant topic. Initial analysis of the data indicates that significant effects can be expected from the full-scale experiment.
The capacity of the research team has been increased by the involvement of Professor Partick Sturgis, the recently appointed Chair of Research Methods in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton. Professor Sturgis is a world-renown scholar in the design and analysis of social science experiments.
Next Steps
The deliberation experiment will run from mid-November for three weeks. Participants will be discussing youth anti-social behaviour and community cohesion issues. Data will be analysed in the early part of 2009.
Outputs (2009)
The project team is committed to producing at least three papers reporting different aspects of the experiment: from the effect of moderation through to the nature of deliberation and its effects.
Link to ECPR Conference September 2009 Paper on 'Deliberation and interent engagement: initial findings from a randomised controlled trial evaluating the impact of facilitated internet forums'
Link to ECPR Conference September 2009 Paper on 'Measuring the 'deliberative quality' of an online experimental mini-public: methodology and early results'
Graham Smith, Sarah Cotterill, Peter John, Gerry Stoker, Corinne Wales,
The University of Southampton
October 2008
