The Deliberative Type? How Different Personalities Prefer and Experience Public Deliberation

Personality significantly affects political attitudes and behaviours, yet its role in deliberative participation remains underexplored. This study examines how the Big Five personality traits shape individuals’ willingness to participate in deliberation and their experiences of structured like-minded deliberation compared to unregulated like-minded discussion. Informal like-minded discussions—such as those on social media – are often intolerant and dominated by opinionated individuals, discouraging more tempered individuals from engaging. However, deliberative discussions—structured and facilitated—can positively impact the discussion climate, also in like-minded groups. The results suggest that Extraverted and Open individuals were more willing to participate in deliberation, while Agreeable individuals were less inclined to do so. However, when it comes to actual experience of like-minded deliberation, personality traits had a limited role. One notable exception was that more Agreeable individuals reported more positive experiences of group dynamics, though overall personality effects were minimal in both treatments. These findings suggest that the “safe environment” of like-minded settings might reduce the impact of personality traits. To fully harness the democratic potential of deliberation, future efforts should focus on encouraging citizens with more introvert and contemplating personalities to take part in deliberation.