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Survey technique digs for informed opinions

Conventional polls rarely show more than the public's surface impressions of sound bites and headlines. Professor James Fishkin of the University of Texas at Austin developed Deliberative Polling to learn what people would think if they had the opportunity to study an issue before answering questions.

Several key elements set the deliberative polling process apart from standard opinion polling and focus groups. First, a scientific sample of the target population answers a telephone questionnaire, gauging raw opinion.

Participants from the telephone survey are recruited for a one- to two-day deliberation exercise. Before the meeting, they receive information on the issue to be discussed, compiled by a broadly representative advisory panel.

The event is broken into small group sessions, led by a professional moderator, and large groups where participants can question the panel of experts. At the end of the exercise, participants answer the questionnaire again and before and after results are compared.

The Center for Deliberative Polling, at the University of Texas at Austin, is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling. The first utility application of the method took place in Texas in summer 1996. Several investor-owned utilities sponsored polls to discover if customers supported building 1,000 MW of new renewable energy.