Can Organized Deliberation Reduce Confirmation Bias?

This article explores the potential of deliberative mini-publics for reducing confirmation bias, that is, the tendency to seek out information that confirms existing views over information that contradicts them. A deliberative mini-public exposes participants to diverse opinions in a constructive environment, which could potentially hinder biased information searches. In this study, participants of a local-level mini-public deliberated on the topic of transportation policies and completed surveys before and after deliberation. Measures of the participants’ opinions on the use of private cars and a confirmation bias index were included in the surveys. The confirmation bias index was based on the participants’ choices of news articles. Contrary to expectations, deliberation did not reduce confirmation bias. Additionally, extreme opinions were observed to be associated with higher levels of confirmation bias, independent of whether the respondent was for or against private car use.