An Effect of Storytelling on Attitude Changes in Deliberative Mini-Publics

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between opinion changes and the quality of deliberation in deliberative polls, focusing on the impact of storytelling. Deliberative mini-publics have gained considerable attention as a form of deliberative democracy. While deliberative democracy emphasises the importance of changing participants’ preferences through rational discourse, the existence of a link between opinion changes and deliberation quality has not been thoroughly examined. Furthermore, the influence of alternative forms of communication, such as storytelling, on attitude changes has not yet been investigated. Using data from a deliberation event modelled after a deliberative poll, we conducted a multiple regression analysis to examine the factors that contribute to individual attitude changes, using ‘Opinions,’ ‘Reasons,’ and ‘Personal experience’ as explanatory variables, coded and scored by an index according to the Discourse Quality Index. Our findings revealed that personal experience significantly affected individual opinion changes, although the effect and its direction were inconsistent and contradictory, depending on specific aspects of attitudes. While prior studies have focused on the exchange of reasoned opinions to examine the relationship between opinion changes and deliberation quality, our research suggests that personal storytelling may have an impact on preference changes.