This paper tests the efficacy of utilizing a voting aid in order to embed the benefits of mini-
public deliberation within a wider voting public. We test whether a statement such as those
derived from a Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) can influence voters who did not themselves
participate in the official pre-referendum deliberative phase. This experiment was implemented
in advance of the 2018 Irish referendum on blasphemy, which was one of a series of social-moral
referendums conducted in Ireland following the recommendations of a deliberative assembly of
citizens — The Irish Constitutional Convention (2012-14). This is the first application of a CIR-
style voting aid in a real world mini-public and referendum outside of the US, and also the first
application to what was principally a moral question. We find that non-participating citizens who
are exposed to information about the mini-public and its findings, gain significant increases in
knowledge and what we term reflectiveness where citizens believe such a mini-public will help
them make better and informed judgments. Further, we examine if the effect of information
about a mini-public extends to people’s other-regarding attitudes. The results indicate that
exposing people to statements in favour and against the policy measure in addition to
information about a mini-public and its findings increases their empathy for the other side.