The Consequences of Cross-Cutting Networks for Political Participation

“Indeed, previous research found that cross-cutting exposure has various beneficial effects: It increases political tolerance (Lyons & Sokhey, 2017; Mutz, 2002b; Robinson, 2010) and political knowledge (Kwak et al., 2005; Scheufele et al., 2006), and improves the quality of people’s political…”

“Others show that it discourages electoral participation by exposing citizens to conflicting views or providing them with an alternative channel to achieve personal goals and satisfaction (e.g. Mutz 2002; Aktinson and Fowler 2014).”

“Voluminous literature shows that large and politically diverse networks enhance political deliberation and engagement (Huckfeldt et al. 2004; Jang 2009; Mutz 2002a, 2002b; Pattie and Johnston 2008).”

“…with some scholars arguing that ethnic diversity contributes to political engagement (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996; Hyland 2006; Bischoff 2016) and others claiming that it discourages participation and activism, particularly in proximate settings such as classrooms (Mutz 2002; Campbell 2007).”

“…have shown that individuals are more likely to discuss political issues within homogenous social groups and with like-minded individuals than with heterogeneous groups and non-like-minded individuals (Huckfeldt, Johnson, & Sprague, 2004; Mutz, 2002; Scheufele, Nisbet, Brossard, & Nisbet, 2004).”

“We know that everyday interactions within individuals’ various social networks, including neighborhoods, workplaces, and churches, significantly shape individual political attitudes and beliefs (Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995; Mutz, 2002).”

“A plausible mechanism for this association is that repeated exposure to reinforcing messages leads to a strengthening of opinion, in this case partisanship, while exposure to contradicting messages may weaken previously held political beliefs (Mutz, 2002).”

“While in recent years quite some work has been published on ‘the social logic of politics’ (Zuckerman, 2005; Zuckerman and Kroh, 2006), most of it is focused on two-party systems like the United States or the United Kingdom (Huckfeldt and Sprague, 1992; Mutz, 2002).”

“In fact, perceptions of polarization may even breed disinterest and demobilization (Diana C. Mutz, 2002; Torcal & Maldonado, 2014), limiting the chances of exposure to heterogeneous information.”

“At the same time, ambivalence may result from exposure to political information in the first place [39, 45].”

“…the site does not necessarily mean users are engaging with sources in good faith — they may be counter-arguing (Bright et al. 2020), which may motivate further extremism (Bail et al. 2018), or not (Mutz 2002) — we examine users ’ discursive practices in conversations where links are shared ( RQ3 .”

“…implications for how individuals form preferences over ethnic versus cross-ethnic, programmatic politics.2 This argument builds on the notion that social interaction is the “primary mechanism linking social group membership and individual political behavior” (Horan 1971 quoted in Mutz, 2002).”

“Taking a more psychological approach, other scholars suggest that personality characteristics, such as conflict avoidance, that make political discussion stressful or uncomfortable could explain political discussion network homogeneity (Ulbig and Funk 1999; Mutz 2002).”

“Conversely, partisans in social networks characterized by high levels of disagreement may refrain from commenting or expressing opinions so as to avoid offending others, or be seen to be taking sides in a polarizing context such as an election (Mutz, 2002).”

“We have argued in the previous sections that online information can raise citizens’ capacity to make a decision by increasing political knowledge(32) and motivates participation by polarising political attitudes.(33) If one or even both is true, it seems plausible to assume that citizens become more likely to cast a v…”

“…that women either discuss politics less than men (Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995; Burns, Scholzman, and Verba 2001; Conover, Searing, and Crewe 2002; Mutz 2002) or that gender differences disappear once other political factors are considered (Jacobs, Cook, and Delli Carpini 2009; Hibbing, Ritchie,…”

“For example, a person’s inclination to participate might be affected by the degree of conflict or cross-pressures in a network (Huckfeldt, Mendez, and Osborn 2004; Mutz 2002), the availability of expertise (Huckfeldt 2001; McClurg 2006b), and distribution of motivations and weak ties (Siegel 2009).”

“2307/3088437 Mutz, D. C., & Martin, P. S. (2001).”

“For example, voting has been negatively associated with cross-cutting exposure (Mutz, 2002, 2006) whereas political participation was positively related to cross-cutting discussion among people with high strong-tie homogeneity (Lee, Kwak, & Campbell, 2015).”

“Besides, people are more likely to be exposed to dissimilar political views when they consume news (Mutz, 2002).”

“Scholars argue that the scope of organizational involvement, which is measured by the number of affiliations to which one belongs, is important in fostering political participation (Hooghe 2003; Leighley 1996; Lim 2008; Mutz 2002; Paik and Navarre-Jackson 2010; Paxton 2002 2007).”

“In contrast, Mutz (2002, 2006) found that while talk with likeminded others tends to increase one’s own participation, heterogeneous discussion networks tend to decrease political participation.”

“Previous work suggests that indi viduals exposed to different views will build more considered, knowledgeable opinions (Druckman and Nelson 2003; Gutmann and Thompson 1996; Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004; Mutz 2002b).”

“Other scholars believe that political disagreement may cause social pressure and ambivalence, making people avoid potential conflict and refrain from participating in political actions (Huckfeldt et al., 2004; Mutz, 2002).”

“As for consequences of ambivalence, scholars have argued that ambivalence generates uncertainty (Lavine, 2001; Mutz, 2002) and discomfort (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Luce, 1998; Luce et al., 1997).”

“0022- 1995; La Raja 2014; Mutz 2002; Rosenfeld, Imai, and Shapiro 2016).”

“Voters can remain loyal by adapting their ideology to the party, but they can also experience cross-pressures that lead them to choose another party closer to their views (Levendusky, 2009: 13; Mutz, 2002).”

“Partisan selective exposure results in a network that is largely homogeneous; however, membership in cross-cutting or heterogeneous networks has decided informational advantages for improving tolerance to different perspectives (Mutz, 2002, 2006).”

“This can also be thought of as a measure of attitudinal ambivalence that it is generally believed to have a strong effect on turnout (Feldman and Zaller, 1992; Alvarez and Brehm, 1997; Steenbergen and Brewer, 2004; Lavine, 2001; Mutz, 2002).”

“10 For example, Mutz (2002, p. 852) : “Homogeneous environments are ideal for purposes of encouraging political mobilization.”

“Cross-cutting talk, defined as discussions through online media during television viewing with others holding different viewpoints [89], could enhance the co-viewing experience by introducing diverse perspectives and deeper analysis.”

“engagement (Mutz, 2002), any empirical focus on cross-cutting romantic relationships has been scant (see Peacock & Pederson, 2022).”

“Sparked by earlier findings that exposure to cross-cutting views depresses electoral participation (Mutz, 2002), political communication scholars have”

“Email: djupe@denison.edu In a series of high-profile findings, Diana Mutz (2002a, 2002b, 2006) has posed a dilemma for democratic theorists: democracy can be either deliberative or participatory, but not both.”

“A greater understanding of an individual's use of deception in face-to-face communication could also greatly add to the current body of research on disagreement in political networks (eg, Mutz 2002a , 2002b ; Huckfeldt & Sprauge, 1995 ).”

“This exposure is intended to foster social cohesion and political tolerance among citizens ( Mutz , 2002).”

“…ethnic, or religious groups— influence news choices is crucial to democracy, since despite the positive effects of consuming congenial media on political participation, exposing citizens to political diversity remains critical in ensuring social cohesion and political tolerance (Mutz, 2002).”

“Mutz (2002), for instance, finds an unambiguously negative relationship between social network heterogeneity and participation in contentious collective action (Mutz, 2002, p. 846).”

“Within the network, people can gain access to different sets of politically relevant information compared to that achieved on their own (Huckfeldt 2001; Mutz 2002; McClurg 2003).”

“, 1954; Brader, Tucker, & Therriault, 2009) or a politically diverse social network (Mutz, 2002) are less likely to vote and show less engagement and participation along other measures as well.”

“Because opinion uncertainty is linked to political ambivalence (Mutz, 2002), a less resentful individual being less assured of their support for BLM could be associated with decreased political action on behalf of the movement.”

“Scholars have argued that political network homogeneity directly increases political participation because people within such networks are surrounded primarily by politically like-minded others, thereby emboldening them to express their political views (e.g., Mutz, 2002).”

“…& Hively, 2009; Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Shah et al., 2017), and undesirable effects, such as reduced participation stemming from disagreement (Mutz, 2002b; Mutz, 2006), would therefore also be partially contingent upon an individual’s propensity to engage in political discussion, with…”

“This social accountability explanation (Mutz, 2002) focuses on the system of social rewards and punishments that regulates political discussions: In the case of disagreement in a certain social network, ego tends to feel more uncomfortable with taking a political side that would unavoidably…”

“This study suggests reading online comments can not only provide inadvertent exposure to different political opinions with diverse viewpoints but also can change the information utility of opinion-challenging news, resembling outcomes of cross-cutting discussions, that is, political discussion with those holding oppos…”

“…RelationsPattie and Johnston research-article2016 Article understanding of viewpoints different to one’s own (Ben-Nun Bloom and BagnoMoldavsky, 2014; Mutz, 2002a, 2006; Pattie and Johnston, 2008) and political participation (Mutz, 2002b, 2006; Mutz and Mondak, 2006; Nir, 2005, 2011; Pattie and…”

“As we know that frequency of discussion leads to more participation generally (Eveland & Hively, 2009; Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995; Mutz, 2002b; Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995), it would be useful to see if the frequency of advocacy demonstrates similar results.”

“In the case of opinions about current issues, Mutz (2002a) argues disagreement in political discussion can lead one to see increased legitimacy in rationales given by the other side of a political argument.”

“However, a person can pick up the skill of understanding his own opinion from interaction with heterogeneous people (Berelson et al. 1954; Mutz 2002a, b).”

“On the one hand, broadening civil political participation increases social diversity, which has a positive impact on tolerance [53].”

“Such accounts tend to interpret that more significant heterogeneity can lead to political disagreements, create ambivalence, and discourage participation (Kim and Hyun, 2017; Mutz, 2002).”

“Both social networks (McClurg, 2003; Kenny, 1992; McClurg, 2006; Mutz, 2002) and social norms (Shulman and Levine, 2012; Gerber and Rogers, 2009) have been found to influence individual political participation.”

“As such, people often suppress their divergent or challenging views, engaging in self-censorship, to maintain cohesiveness and avoid ostracism [12, 18, 20].”

“Combined with findings indicating that interaction with like-minded others increases political participation (Mutz, 2002a, 2002b), the literature seems to suggest that a greater degree of embeddedness in networks of communicating actors within an imagined community leads to a greater degree of…”

“Nonetheless, such mobilization might increase political participation, which is consistent with Mutz (2002) findings on the negative relationship between ambivalence and willingness to participate politically.”

“Such political confidence emboldens people to make resolute political decisions (Mutz, 2002).”

“Note that we are focusing here on those individuals that completed the battery, i.e. those that said they discuss politics or important matters with at least one person, as is customary (Mutz 2002b; Sinclair 2012; Sokhey and McClurg 2012).”

“We refer in particular to the literature about the effect of context on turnout (Mutz 2002; Jones 1992; Cho et al. 2006).”

“In addition, exposure or anticipated exposure to political disagreement motivates citizens to pursue political information [57,58,81].”

“In similar vein, Mutz (2002b) demonstrates that being exposed to opposing political views increases awareness of legitimate rationales behind those views.”

“Based on two representative national surveys from the 1992 election, Mutz (2002) found that people whose network involved greater political disagreement were more likely to make up their minds later on in the campaign.”

“voting, volunteer work, and community activities)(McLeod et al., 1996; Mutz, 2002; Mutz & Martin, 2001; Shah, McLeod, & Yoon, 2001).”

“Mutz (2002) shows that people whose social networks involve more political disagreement are less likely to vote.”