Deliberative democratic theory proposes an active citizenry that becomes empowered by discussing and taking and active part in politics. There is a large gap between theory and practice in the deliberative democratic literature. Namely, while many scholars have theorized why deliberative democracy can be considered normatively desirable, fewer studies have measured whether the benefits gained from deliberation are plausible. Almost all of the major empirical studies in the literature involve either quasi-experimental designs or fieldwork. As such, it becomes difficult to tell whether or not deliberation does produce benefits for individuals, and if so, how durable these gains are. This doctoral dissertation project explores the individual benefits of deliberation by defining, describing and defending the desirability of the more commonly cited benefits. This is followed by a full experimental set-up that includes one control group and three different treatment groups that participate in different forms of deliberation. The treatment groups include: a group that only watches deliberation, a group that participates in a non-hierarchical and informal discussion, and a group that participates in a rigorously-moderated and highly structured deliberation. The hypotheses indicate that different treatment conditions will have different effects on the existence and magnitude of the two types of individual benefits: civic and educative.

This study examines individuals’ motivational factors when it comes to participation in surveys, and how these are reflected in their social actions. The empirical data consists of semi-structured interviews with six individuals, three men and three women. The empirical data has been analyzed on the basis of Max Weber's ideal types of social action (Weber, 1983) and Edwin Locke’s motivational theory (2000). The study finds several aspects that affect the decision making when it comes to participating in a survey, or not to participate. The most central theme is that the research topic in a survey needs to be significant to motivate the respondents to participate. The respondents all share the view that research within the field of health and medicine is important, accordingly expressing motivation to participate in surveys regarding the subject. Another central theme is that a survey needs to favor the participants in some way for them to feel motivated to participate. / Denna studie undersöker vad som motiverar individer till att delta i undersökningar, och hur detta avspeglas i deras sociala handlande. Empirin består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex personer, varav tre män och tre kvinnor. Det insamlade materialet har analyserats utifrån Max Webers idealtyper för det sociala handlandet (Weber, 1983) samt Edwin Locke´s motivationsteori (Locke, 2000). Resultatet i studien visar att det finns flera olika aspekter som väger in när det kommer till att ta beslutet att delta, eller att inte delta i undersökningar. Det mest centrala temat hos samtliga respondenter forskningsämnet i en undersökning måste kännas betydelsefullt för att de ska motiveras till att delta i studien. Gemensamt hos samtliga respondenter är att undersökningar samt forskning gällande medicin och hälsa är ytterst viktigt, samt att de upplever större motivation till att delta i dessa undersökningar. Utöver detta är ävenett annat centralt tema individuella nyttor samt incitament i undersökningar för att öka motivationen.