TY - JOUR
T1 - The Political Consequences of Online Disagreement
T2 - The Filtering of Communication Networks in a Polarized Political Context
AU - Zhang, Xinzhi
AU - Lin, Wan Ying
AU - Dutton, William H.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is supported by the General Research Fund (GRF) by the Research Grants Council (RGC) in the Hong Kong SAR (project no.: 12609319).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/7/1
Y1 - 2022/7/1
N2 - The present study challenges prevailing beliefs and research on the role of social media in supporting deliberation and an active public sphere. Based on a two-wave online panel survey (n = 791) of the adult population of Hong Kong, as one case of a politically polarized society, we examine the degree to which individuals disconnect from those with whom they politically disagree with on social media. The analysis indicates that exposure to disagreement does indeed lead people to filter their information repertoire by disconnecting from those with whom they disagree. A moderated mediation analysis finds that political disagreement indirectly influenced activist participation through information repertoire filtration. However, in contrast to expectations, this effect was stronger when individuals had a lower level of affective polarization. Our findings underscore the value of focusing on the behavior of users to complement research on access to information about politics.
AB - The present study challenges prevailing beliefs and research on the role of social media in supporting deliberation and an active public sphere. Based on a two-wave online panel survey (n = 791) of the adult population of Hong Kong, as one case of a politically polarized society, we examine the degree to which individuals disconnect from those with whom they politically disagree with on social media. The analysis indicates that exposure to disagreement does indeed lead people to filter their information repertoire by disconnecting from those with whom they disagree. A moderated mediation analysis finds that political disagreement indirectly influenced activist participation through information repertoire filtration. However, in contrast to expectations, this effect was stronger when individuals had a lower level of affective polarization. Our findings underscore the value of focusing on the behavior of users to complement research on access to information about politics.
KW - affective polarization
KW - information repertoire filtration
KW - political disagreement
KW - political participation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135029801&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20563051221114391
DO - 10.1177/20563051221114391
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2056-3051
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Social Media and Society
JF - Social Media and Society
IS - 3
ER -