The Consequences of Cross-Cutting Networks for Political Participation

“She concluded, ‘‘The kind of environment widely assumed to encourage an open and tolerant society is not necessarily the same kind of environment that produces an enthusiastically participative one’’ (Mutz, 2002b, p. 851).”

“…selective affiliation (i.e., homophily; Lazarsfeld & Merton, 1954; McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001), echo chambers (e.g., Garrett, 2009a, 2009b), and exposure to cross-cutting political information (Mutz, 2002) rely on estimates of the political preferences of interacting individuals.”

“, 2004), whereas others note that supportive interpersonal interaction encourages people to be politically decisive and involved (Mutz, 2002).”

“…one can anticipate that mobile communication in monadic clusters can have negative effects attitudinally and behaviorally, previous research demonstrates that political discussion can have differential effects on attitudinal and behavioral aspects of political life (Mutz, 2002a, 2002b, 2006).”

“Given that frequent exposure to disagreement has been found to foster a better understanding of alternative political perspectives (Mutz, 2002b; Price et al., 2002) but also cultivate uncertainty and ambivalence toward political candidates (Huckfeldt et al., 2004; Mutz, 2002a), its consequences for…”

“This type of disengagement is largely evident in behaviors like voting and discussing politics (Mutz, 2002).”

“hers have countered that too much cross ideological exposure can lead to political ambivalence, and hence at least a certain amount of fragmentation is necessary for political action (Dahlberg, 2007; Mutz, 2002) 2 2 Explaining Echo Chambers in Online Discussion Networks This first section will conceptualise echo chambe…”

“This tolerance then spreads to people who are not members of the group (see Mutz, 2002b, for an excellent overview of cross-cutting networks and tolerance; Theiss-Morse & Hibbing, 2005, p. 230) In other words, through their involvement in a group, people become aware that others hold different…”

“And yet, weak ties also lack the mutual trust and intimacy that facilitates the discussion of disagreement (Morey et al., 2012), as well as the relational bond that causes the cross-pressures in the first place (Mutz, 2002b).”

“Cross-cutting content exposure is also known to generate ambivalence and reduce political engagement (Mutz, 2002).”

“Yet, Mutz (2002a, 2006) argues there is also a dark side to disagreement in terms of political participation.”

“First, individuals may systematically abandon organizations when they encounter conflicting views because the presence of political conflict makes them uncomfortable (Mutz, 2002).”

“In a similar study, Diana Mutz and Jeffery Mondak (2006) found consistent evidence that crosscutting political discussion in the workplace increases people’s knowledge of rationales for political perspectives and fosters political tolerance.”

“…political information, opinion quality, and sense of efficacy (e.g., Bennett, Flickinger, & Rhine, 2000; Eveland, 2004; Eveland & Thomson, 2006; Lee, 2009; Mutz, 2002a; Pattie & Johnston, 2008; Searing, Solt, Conover, & Crewe, 2007; Wyatt, Katz, & Kim, 2000; but see Hardy & Scheufele, 2009).”

“There is ample evidence that exposure to political news makes it easier for people to reconsider their political views (Fishkin, 1991; Mutz, 2002).”

“This literature suggests that exposure to discord within a political discussion networkmay depress political participation (Mutz 2002) but increase political tolerance (Mutz and Mondak 2006).”

“E-mail: klofstad@gmail.com 292 1992, 1994; Klofstad, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011; Lake & Huckfeldt, 1998; McClurg, 2003, 2004; Mutz, 2002; Rolfe, 2012; Sinclair, 2012; Zuckerman, 2004).”

“For example, research finds that engaging in political discussion is associated with greater political knowledge and tolerance (e.g., Esterling, Neblo, and Lazer 2011; Fishkin and Luskin 1999; Mutz 2002).”

“…rather than “cross-cutting networks” or “dissimilar networks,” that is, the extent in to which one’s social network hold political views to oneself (Mutz 2002), should be more conducive for social media news engagement because it provides a “safe” space in which individuals can share and…”

“Existing research on informal political talk shows that “cross-pressure” is a main explanation why competing claims in one’s social circle can make a person withdraw from politics (Eveland and Hively, 2009; Mutz, 2002).”

“On the contrary, a lack of personal ties to those with different political views is likely to have detrimental effects on political tolerance (Mutz, 2002).”

“In recent decades, increased attention has been given to the possibility that social factors in general can influence various political outcomes (Huckfeldt and Sprague 1987; Mutz 2002; Cho, Gimpel, and Dyck 2006; Bhatti and Hansen 2012a; Fieldhouse and Cutts 2012; Enos 2014).”

“Although some might argue that even unwelcome or forced exposure to conflict is good for democracy, Mutz ( 2002a ) concludes that exposure to frequent political disagreement may cause some individuals to avoid politics altogether in an effort to maintain amicable social relationships.”

“Moreover, as the research on interpersonal political discussion has shown, most people prefer to avoid conflict with close and trusted social ties, especially over political issues (eliasoph 1998; eliasoph 2000; eveland, Morey, and hutchens 2011; Mutz 2002).”

“With a few exceptional findings (Mutz, 2002), discussion network heterogeneity has been shown to be related to hard news use (Scheufele, Nisbet, Brossard, & Nisbet, 2004), exposure to different political points of view (McLeod, Sotirovic, & Holbert, 1998), openness to disagreements in political…”

“Americans receive the messages associated with this discourse through both news media exposure and informal political communication (Mutz, 1998, 2002; Zaller, 1992).”

“…own beliefs and behavior via both direct influence and the provision of information (e.g., Beck 2002; Chong 1991; Huckfeldt 2001; Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995; Leighley 1990; Klofstad 2011; Klofstad, Sokhey, and McClurg 2013; McAdam 1986; McClurg 2003, 2006; Mutz 2002; Petersen 2001; Ryan 2011).”

“, 2004; Parsons, 2010) and less likely to vote (Eveland & Hively, 2009; Mutz 2002b; Parsons, 2010).”

“Ambivalence also influences patterns of political involvement (Mutz, 2002) and moderates the influence of other factors on vote choice (Lavine, 2001).”

“However, the concept has found new life in subsequent work by Mutz (2002).”

“Living in politically diverse environments tends to depress turnout (Costa & Kahn, 2004; McClurg, 2006; Mutz, 2002a, b).”

“Another possible explanation is that news information on social media may contain counter-attitudinal or challenging messages, which in turn may discourage individuals’ political participation (e.g., Mutz, 2002).”

“By contrast, as distance audiences tend to consist of crosscutting networks, envisioning a distant audience likely promotes open-mindedness, ultimately leading to more moderate attitudes (Mutz, 2002).”

“Individuals who are certain that their side is correct and that governance by others would have deleterious consequences will be more motivated to participate than those who are ambivalent and see both sides as equally (in)capable (Lavine, 2001; Mutz, 2002; Nir, 2005; Nir & Druckman, 2008).”

“Conflict avoidance could also hinder political participation (Mutz, 2002).”

“Individuals embedded in incongruent (challenging) contexts are less likely to turn out to vote (Gimpel, Dyck, & Shaw 2004; Huckfeldt & Sprague 1995; Mutz, 2002, 2006), and when they do vote, their choices are often influenced by the personal discussion networks that have been established from their…”

“20 Results suggest that exposure to political disagreement en-genders ambivalent political views of those with high levels of conflict avoidance, which is deterrent to political involvement.”

“On the other hand, the social accountability explanation (Mutz, 2002) should be less relevant in the context of political advertising, because social relationships are not at stake (as they are in political conversations with conflicting opinions).”

“Mutz (2002a), for example, argues that being exposed to non-like-minded partisan information in one’s social network can create feelings of ambivalence among voters and consequently promote apathy rather than engagement with the political process.”

“Since the 1990s, a group of political scientists have improved this theory in three ways (Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995; Mutz, 2006, 2002a, 2002b; Mutz & Mondak, 2006; Verba, Schlozman & Brady 1995; Zuckerman, 2005).”

“…for which party they will cast their ballot tend to be ambivalent regarding parties’ policy profiles (Dassonneville et al., 2017: 208–212; see also Mutz, 2002), a key aspect of parties’ electoral campaigns should be highlighting the differences between themselves and their competitors to…”

“More recent studies (Mutz, 2002a) confirmed that cross-cutting discussions decreased political participation, because they increased both intrapersonal ambivalence and interpersonal accountability.”

“Thus, partisan preferences espoused at the elite level drive the national ideological climate and are mediated by one’s immediate social context (Mutz, 2002).”

“It can make people become more entrenched in their belief or be unsure of them, so they withdraw politically (Mutz, 2002).”

“46 Mutz 2002.”

“Mutz [260] notes that a great deal of research has shown that in”

“Religious social networks often comprise like-minded individuals (Mutz, 2002), and political talk with like-minded fellow congregates may ossify group boundaries and heighten grievances and perceptions of threat from other groups.”

“Theory and research demonstrates that the type of political discussion needed to sustain democracy requires exposure to divergent points of view (Huckfeldt, Mendez, & Osborn, 2004; Mutz, 2002).”