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Online Deliberative Polling Exercise at the Nobel Prize Summit

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Deliberative Polling Exercise at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit

During the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit, organized by the Nobel Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences, the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University held a Deliberative Polling exercise (This was not a full-scale Deliberative Poll, which usually lasts for a full day or multiple days).  The exercise took place online on the AI-assisted Stanford Online Deliberation Platform, a collaborative product of the Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Crowdsourced Democracy Team at Stanford University.

Videos from the Event:

Discussion Panel on the Deliberative Polling Exercise featuring James Fishkin (Stanford University), Åsa Wikforss (Stockholm University), and Saul Perlmutter (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 2011)

Closing Remarks from Marcia McNutt (National Academy of Sciences) and Vidar Helgesen (Nobel Foundation)

Feature Story on the Nobel Prize Summit:

Nobel Prize Summit Fuels Initiatives to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation and Build Trust in Science

Background:

The 2023 Nobel Prize Summit on Truth, Trust, and Hope has the goal of initiating new efforts to build a world where thoughtful deliberation built on trustworthy information can thrive, buffering our societies against the damages due to misinformation and disinformation.  One key challenge of this work is to establish a shared sense of legitimacy for policies to manage the information landscape that are enacted either by the private or public sectors.   As citizens, we need to be able to trust that such policies are not primarily tools for building political power or private profits.

At the Nobel Summit, conference participants had the opportunity to explore one possible participatory-democracy-based solution to this problem, representative citizen deliberation.  Participants in the exercise completed a confidential pre-deliberation survey, joined deliberations on possible policy proposals for dealing with misinformation in virtual small groups of about 10 people, listened to a plenary session virtually with experts and policymakers, and completed a post-deliberation survey.  A panel at the conference featuring James Fishkin (Stanford University), Åsa Wikforss (Stockholm University), and Saul Perlmutter (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 2011) discussed the deliberative exercise and its significance.

 

About the Deliberative Democracy Lab, Stanford University

The Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University is housed in the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute. DDL is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling®. Deliberative Polling is a registered trademark of James S Fishkin and any fees generated are used to support Deliberative Democracy Lab. The method of Deliberative Polling has been used in over 50 countries and jurisdictions around the world through over 120 projects, at varying levels of government and society. To learn more about the DDL, visit: deliberation.stanford.edu.

About the Crowdsourced Democracy Team

The Crowdsourced Democracy Team at Stanford University is led by Ashish Goel and is housed in Management Science and Engineering. The mission of CDT is to scale up collaboration and decision-making. To learn more about CDT, visit: https://voxpopuli.stanford.edu/.