Kimmo Grönlund on 'Enclave deliberation in mini-publics' (6 March 2013)
Channel: Electoral Integrity Project
Date: 06/03/2014

Professor Kimmo Grönlund gives a talk at the Electoral Integrity Project's weekly lunchtime seminar.

Download the paper at: http://bit.ly/1dtUZHN

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When like-minded people discuss with each other, (i.e. engage in 'enclave deliberation'), their opinions tend to become more extreme. This is called group polarization. A population-based experiment with a pre-test post-test design was conducted to analyze whether the norms and procedures of deliberation interfere with the mechanisms of group polarization. The main finding of the experiment is that people with anti-immigrant attitudes became more tolerant even when they deliberated in like-minded groups. Moreover, similar learning curves were observed in both treatments. The results suggest that deliberative norms curb group polarization, which calls for a modification of Sunstein's (2002) law of group polarization.


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The Electoral Integrity Project is an independent research team based at the University of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. It explores many issues, focusing upon three main questions: 

- When do elections meet international standards of electoral integrity? 
- What happens when elections fail to do so? 
- And what can be done to mitigate these problems? 

For more information see: www.electoralintegrityproject.com