The importance of context and the effect of information and deliberation on opinion change regarding environmental issues in citizens’ juries

Thompson, A. G.H., Escobar, O., Roberts, J. J., Elstub, S. and Pamphilis, N. M. (2021) The importance of context and the effect of information and deliberation on opinion change regarding environmental issues in citizens’ juries. Sustainability, 13(17), 9852. (doi: 10.3390/su13179852)

Abstract

Citizens’ juries have become a popular method for engaging citizens in deliberation about complex public policy issues, such as climate action and sustainable development. Empirical evidence routinely indicates that jurors change their minds throughout the process. What is less clear is when and why this occurs and whether the causes are consistent across juries that consider the same topic but are situated within different contexts. We present evidence of opinion change in citizens’ juries through a natural experiment, contrasting three local contexts of onshore windfarm development in Scotland; viz. existing, planned, and absent. Jurors’ individual opinions of climate change, wind energy, and windfarms were measured through questionnaires at four time points: the start, following information-giving, reflection, and deliberation. Statistical examination of jurors’ responses, through paired sample t-tests, Wilcoxon sign-tests, and Generalised Least Squares regression, reveals to what extent substantive changes were associated with different phases and locational contexts. In all three juries, opinion change occurs throughout the process, on different topics, and to different degrees. While the information phase consistently influences jurors’ opinions the most, jury composition affects the magnitude and direction of opinion change, with outcomes contingent on contexts. Our findings are important for informing how mini-publics are designed and used to inform environmental policy-making at different scales.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Escobar, Mr Oliver and Pamphilis, Dr Niccole

Creator Roles

Pamphilis, N. M.: Data curation, Software, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Thompson, A. G.H., Escobar, O., Roberts, J. J., Elstub, S., and Pamphilis, N. M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Sustainability
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2071-1050
• ISSN (Online): 2071-1050
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Sustainability 13(17): 9852
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence