The effect of cross-cutting exposure on attitude change: examining the mediating role of response behaviors and the moderating role of openness to diversity and social network homogeneity

ABSTRACT

Using nationally representative data in Taiwan, this study investigated the effect of cross-cutting exposure on social media on attitudinal change. Findings showed that the way people responded to political disagreement on social media matters. People’s attitudes were likely to change when they checked cross-cutting information and expressed opinion after being exposed to it, but not when they ignored the disagreeing information after the exposure. Accordingly, checking disagreeing information and expressing opinion played a significant role in mediating the relationship between exposure to cross-cutting information and attitude change. More importantly, the indirect effect of cross-cutting exposure on attitude through information checking was contingent on the levels of individuals’ openness to diversity and social network homogeneity. The indirect effect was strengthened when the level of openness to diversity was higher but weakened when the level of social network homogeneity was higher. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-cutting exposure
• information checking
• opinion expression
• attitude change
• openness to diversity
• social network homogeneity

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to TIGCR for providing the data resource from their 2018 political polarization survey (TIGCR-PPS2018). Professors Chi Huang and Chingching Chang at National Chengchi University are the project investigators. Detailed information about the project can be found at the TIGCR website http://tigcr.nccu.edu.tw/ (DOI:10.6923/TW-TIGCR-PPS2018). The authors thank the special issue editors, Prof. Trisha T. C. Lin and Prof. Chia-Hung Tsai, and the two anonymous reviewers who have provided valuable advice and constructive comments on this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The insignificant path between ignoring information and attitude change is released to free a degree of freedom for model fit calculation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hsuan-Ting Chen

Hsuan-Ting Chen (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) is an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research addresses the uses of digital media technologies and their impact on individuals’ daily lives, political communication processes, and democratic engagement.

Minwei Ai

Minwei Ai is a doctoral student at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include digital journalism and political communication.

Jing Guo

Jing Guo is a doctoral student at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on political communication and health communication with a focus on the role of social media.