Seeing the other side? Perspective-taking and reflective political judgements in interpersonal deliberation
Seeing the other side? Perspective-taking and reflective political judgements in interpersonal deliberation
A healthy democracy needs citizens to make reflective political judgements. Sceptics argue that reflective opinions are either nonexistent or rare. Proponents of deliberative democracy suggest that democratic deliberation is capable of prompting reflective political reasoning among people. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. This article offers a bridge between psychology and political theory and proposes a theory of perspective-taking in deliberation. It argues that under the right conditions, deliberation induces more reflective judgements by eliciting the process of perspective-taking – actively imagining others’ experiences, perspectives and feelings – in citizen deliberators. Two institutional features of deliberative forums are emphasized: the presence of a diversity of viewpoints and the interplay of fact-based rational argumentation and storytelling. I test the plausibility of this theory using a case study – the Irish Citizens’ Assembly – thereby, relying on qualitative in-depth interview data and quantitative survey data. I further substantiate my findings with a laboratory experiment.
democracy, political polarization, empathy, perspective taking, democratic innovations, irish citizens' assemblies, abortion, lab experiment, case study, mixed-method research, reflective political reasoning, political attitudes, public opinion
644-664
Muradova, Lala
5f2595b4-c347-4e45-bae5-bb0f5b397fa4
August 2021
Muradova, Lala
5f2595b4-c347-4e45-bae5-bb0f5b397fa4
Muradova, Lala
(2021)
Seeing the other side? Perspective-taking and reflective political judgements in interpersonal deliberation.
Political Studies, 69 (3), .
(doi:10.1177/0032321720916605).
Abstract
A healthy democracy needs citizens to make reflective political judgements. Sceptics argue that reflective opinions are either nonexistent or rare. Proponents of deliberative democracy suggest that democratic deliberation is capable of prompting reflective political reasoning among people. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. This article offers a bridge between psychology and political theory and proposes a theory of perspective-taking in deliberation. It argues that under the right conditions, deliberation induces more reflective judgements by eliciting the process of perspective-taking – actively imagining others’ experiences, perspectives and feelings – in citizen deliberators. Two institutional features of deliberative forums are emphasized: the presence of a diversity of viewpoints and the interplay of fact-based rational argumentation and storytelling. I test the plausibility of this theory using a case study – the Irish Citizens’ Assembly – thereby, relying on qualitative in-depth interview data and quantitative survey data. I further substantiate my findings with a laboratory experiment.
Text
muradova-2020-seeing-the-other-side-perspective-taking-and-reflective-political-judgements-in-interpersonal-deliberation
- Version of Record
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 May 2021
Published date: August 2021
Keywords:
democracy, political polarization, empathy, perspective taking, democratic innovations, irish citizens' assemblies, abortion, lab experiment, case study, mixed-method research, reflective political reasoning, political attitudes, public opinion
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 506995
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/506995
ISSN: 0032-3217
PURE UUID: ccd9fc1d-bf8d-43f7-b95b-7233ff451092
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 25 Nov 2025 17:38
Last modified: 26 Nov 2025 03:09
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Lala Muradova
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics