Publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical issues: extending the situational theory of problem solving

ABSTRACT

Capturing a unique moment within a particularly volatile political climate where various issues such as climate change, immigration, and healthcare are increasingly polarized, this survey examines the factors driving publics’ engagement in and disengagement from communication on controversial sociopolitical issues. It applies and expands the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) by integrating the theoretical insights from the literature of information omission and avoidance. Results not only support the applicability of the STOPS model in explaining publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical problems but also the viability of integrating two new behavioral outcomes – information omission and avoidance – into the STOPS framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Controversial issues
• information avoidance
• information omission
• situational theory of problem solving (STOPS)

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Scale items are available upon request.

2 Regarding the dummy-coded control variable of issue type, the path from it to situational motivation was not significant for dummy variable 3 (sex and gender-related issue = 1, others = 0; p = .49). Yet, the path was significant and negative for dummy variable 2 (Trump’s presidency = 1, others = 0; coefficient = −.08, p = .006) and positive for dummy variable 1 (immigration = 1, others = 0; coefficient = .07, p = .04). In addition, the paths from issue type to CAPS and disengagement from CAPS were not significant (ps < .05), except for the path from dummy variable 1 (immigration = 1, others = 0) to disengagement from CAPS (coefficient = −.16, p = .001) and the path from dummy variable 3 (sex and gender-related issue = 1, others = 0) to CAPS (coefficient = −.06, p = .03).