Work

Title Pending

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.While public deliberations have been shown to influence some political opinions, less is known about how virtual deliberations may affect low-income individuals' views on government assistance. This paper examines whether virtual deliberations can shift perspectives and increase willingness to reconsider opinions on government assistance. Using a mixed methods approach, the study conducted 26 virtual deliberations (21 in English and 5 in Spanish) during 2022-2023. Participants, diverse in age, household size, urbanicity, and race/ethnicity were tasked with setting priorities for government spending programs given limited resources. Experience with government safety net programs increased for some during the pandemic. Participants showed a statistically significant increase in their willingness to change their views on governments assistance, (p=0.001) and in their comfort expressing their beliefs to those with different views (p=0.036). No substantial changes were observed on statements measuring the perceived reasonableness of whether the governments should provide “more” or “less” assistance. A qualitative analyses provided insights into participants reasons for shifting or maintaining their initial preferences after considering others‘ viewpoints. These results demonstrated that empathetic, democratic, open minded and respectfully online deliberations foster a willingness to reconsider views and express beliefs comfortably about government assistance, even if they do not lead to change on specific issues.

Source: Journal of Deliberative Democracy

DOI: 10.16997/jdd.1852