Promoting Students’ Engagement in Civil Dialogue: A Pilot Study and Randomized Controlled Trial
Date
2025-01-25
Authors
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Publisher
SNF Ithaca Initiative
Abstract
In this report, I describe the results of a pilot study and a randomized controlled trial that investigated the possibility that engaging in a structured conversation with someone of differing political views can increase students’ willingness to express their views on controversial topics and improve students’ attitudes toward individuals who do not share their views.
The pilot study (n=47) was conducted during the fall 2023 semester. Students from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) were asked to participate in a Unify America College Bowl; a virtual one-on-one conversation with a student at a different university who holds different political views . Afterward, students reported on their experience through an online survey. As a whole, the students reported enjoying their conversations very much and rated their conversation partner and themselves as acting very respectfully. They reported that they began the conversation feeling quite nervous and that they ended the conversation quite optimistic and inspired. In addition, more than half of the students who participated reported that, after the conversation, they placed more value on viewpoints that differ from their own and felt more comfortable interacting with people with opposing views.
However, the students in the pilot study were a select group of students: directly or indirectly, they had chosen to participate in the virtual conversation. They may have been particularly interested in engaging in civil dialogue, open to hearing diverse viewpoints, or willing to take the psychological risk of meeting a stranger online. Perhaps the positive trends in the pilot study had less to do with engaging in a civil dialogue than with the type of students who choose to engage in civil dialogue.
Thus, a randomized controlled trial was conducted during the spring 2024 semester. To launch the study, an email from the chancellor encouraged continuing first-year students to participate in a semester-long study of “constructive conversations.” Participating students reported their attitudes about viewpoint expression and viewpoint diversity at the beginning (Phase 1), middle (Phase 2), and end of the semester (Phase 3). By random assignment, students in the “conversation” condition were asked to engage in a one-hour civil dialogue through Unify America College Bowl just before responding to the Phase 2 survey; students in the control condition were asked to watch a one-hour neutral video before responding to the Phase 2 survey.
For the 50 students in the conversation condition who completed all three phases, there were key changes that aligned with expectations. First, their perception of how much disagreement exists between them and other college students of differing viewpoints decreased from baseline to immediately after the College Bowl, and their perception of how much agreement exists increased. Second, the degree to which they felt favorably toward students of differing viewpoints increased after engaging in the College Bowl, and this change was maintained in the Phase 3 follow-up. For the 116 students in the control condition who completed all three phases of the study, changes in attitudes over the three phases were inconsistent.
Notably, more students in the conversation condition than in the control condition did not complete the online task, essentially dropping out of the study during Phase 2. During Phase 3, we learned that students in the conversation condition who did not proceed with the College Bowl most often reported it was because they were uncomfortable speaking with a stranger online (64%), didn’t have time (52%), or weren’t interested in engaging in an online conversation about political issues (44%). Students who did engage in the conversation said it was because they wanted to earn the financial incentive (92%) and they were curious about what the online conversation would be like (70%). The open-ended responses from students who did engage in the conversation were nearly all positive (mean rating of 9 on a 0-10 scale).
Together, the findings imply that many students, perhaps mostly out of fear/anxiety or disinterest, will probably not actively engage in civil dialogue unless they are required to. However, among students who do actively choose to engage in civil dialogue, positive attitudinal change can occur, at least in the short-term. To promote both attitude change and behavioral change, future initiatives might expose all students to civil dialogue (e.g., through Unify America) and follow it with continued opportunities for civil dialogue and intentional, explicit discussion of personal characteristics (e.g., openness) and behaviors (e.g., asking questions, sharing personal stories) that promote constructive conversations.
Description
Keywords
Civil discourse, Dialogue, Unify America, Students
Citation
Bleske-Rechek, April. 2025. Promoting Students’ Engagement in Civil Dialogue: A Pilot Study and Random Controlled Trial. SNF Ithaca Research Scholar White Paper. No. 3. Newark, DE. Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Ithaca Initiative.