How Partisan Online Environments Shape Communication with Political Outgroups
Publisher
USC ANNENBERG PRESSCitation
Shmargad, Y., & Klar, S. (2019). How Partisan Online Environments Shape Communication with Political Outgroups. International Journal Of Communication, 13, 27. Retrieved from https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10127/2657Rights
Copyright © 2019 (Yotam Shmargad and Samara Klar). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd).Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Social media provide opportunities to consume and share political news in echo chambers, but also to communicate with members of political outgroups. Exposure to political outgroups is often portrayed as the normatively desirable option, although empirically it has mixed effects. With an experimental study, we find that participants who regularly interact with political outgroups on social media share more politically moderate news articles when we assign them to an audience of mostly outgroup versus ingroup members. On the other hand, those who are accustomed to an online echo chamber subsequently polarize when faced with an outgroup audience. Our study holds implications for how a person's online social setting can shape downstream political interactions, and, more broadly, our findings highlight the importance of incorporating pretreatment measures to understand how online environments influence political behavior.Note
Open access journalISSN
1932-8036Version
Final published versionAdditional Links
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10127Collections
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2019 (Yotam Shmargad and Samara Klar). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd).