MODERATOR: “Do all of you generally believe [the United States] did not have, with the exception of Great Britain, the support of the world?”
Respondent: “Well, France has always been one of those who have turned their nose up at the U.S.”
The exchange came not in the early weeks of the war in Iraq, but back in early December. A dozen people—part of a larger group of 280 randomly selected individuals—were talking about when nations are justified in using military force. But instead of sitting together in a conference room, they were speaking up from their own homes in the first-ever online, voice-based “deliberative poll.”
“Typically, the New York Times or a survey organization will call and ask how you feel about X, Y or Z,” communication professor Shanto Iyengar says about the tiresome interruptions that often come at dinnertime. Not so with the Deliberative Poll. It was developed and trademarked by James Fishkin, a professor of government at the University of Texas-Austin who created a face-to-face version of the poll 10 years ago. Fishkin, who joins the Stanford communication department in July, has shown that when people have an opportunity to learn about and discuss issues before being questioned, their answers are different from a control group’s off-the-cuff responses.
Iyengar, who works on harnessing technology to stimulate political interest, came up with the idea of taking deliberative polling online. He and Fishkin wanted to study a representative national sample, which meant they needed to bridge the digital divide. “We took people who were in the ‘have-not’ category, who didn’t have Internet access, and gave them fully equipped computers and taught them how to use the software,” Iyengar says.
All participants received nonpartisan briefing materials designed by the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums Institute. They then met in an online chat room twice a week for an hour each time. At the end of the six-week cyberdiscussion, 60 percent said they supported the protection of human rights in other countries, compared with 49 percent at the outset. The proportion who supported protecting weaker nations against aggression rose from 56 to 68 percent.
When computers become as widespread as televisions, Iyengar says, the online poll could be powerful. “It’s clear that if you want people to become more involved in their communities and take a more active role in society, this is a wonderful tool for doing that.”
