Exploring the psychological foundations of democratic group deliberation: Personality factors, Confirming interaction, and democratic decision making

This report investigated relationships among group members’ personalities, confirming interaction, and democratic decision making. Using the Big Five personality measure and a self‐report measure of confirming interaction, it was hypothesized that confirming interaction would be reported more often in groups whose members are relatively extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, non‐neurotic, and open to experience. Of these personality factors, one had a clear association: Groups with higher mean levels of agreeableness reported higher levels of confirming interaction. In addition, perceived confirming interaction was hypothesized to be positively correlated with members’ perceptions of democratic decision making. This hypothesis was also supported.