Deliberative Polls : The Process of Knowledge Acquisition and Discussion

In this paper, we analyze the participants' process of understanding and discussion in a deliberative poll that requires them to acquire a certain amount of scientific knowledge. Changes in the understanding and opinions of individuals are traced through transcripts of actual discussions and responses to questionnaires. This reveals, on the one hand, that people gain information not only through written documents, movies, and professional comments that answer their questions, but also through small-group discussions. It also shows that a small-group discussion helps participants, even those who do not talk much, to form their own opinions. On the other hand, our analysis shows that some parts of the small-group discussion proceeded with the participants having an improper or insufficient understanding of scientific contents involved in the discussion topics. This led us to believe that deliberation is not possible based on a single deliberative poll but rather on a series of deliberative polls, or other events that aim to induce deliberation