Which Perceived Opinion Climates Influence the Participation in Online Political Discussions?

ABSTRACT

Based on the Spiral of Silence theory, we posit that people perceive opinion climates on three different levels: the opinion climate (1) in society, (2) among their friends, and (3) in a specific situation. Based on a three-wave panel survey with two embedded experiments (N = 1,286), we analyze whether these perceived opinion climates influence the participation in online political discussions. Results show that perceptions of the opinion climate in society and among friends do not have an effect. Instead, the perceived situational climate of opinion matters: Individuals in balanced or congruent opinion environments engage more often than those in incongruent environments.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

¹ These topics were identified through a pretest. In this pretest, 116 participants (quota-based sample) were asked about the relevance of nine controversial topics regarding food policy and about their opinion on these topics. The two specific topics were selected as they were identified as relevant by the participants and as there were clear differences of opinion between the participants on these topics.

² Further analyses show that respondents tended to support the prevailing arguments in their own statements rather than to oppose them. In total, 64.4% of respondents supported the prevailing arguments in the respective online discussion scenarios on PP and 69.3% the prevailing arguments in the respective online discussion scenarios on GMO.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jürgen Manchot Foundation [Manchot Research Group “Decision-Making with the Help of Artificial Intelligence”].

Notes on contributors

Ole Kelm

Ole Kelm (Ph.D., Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 2020) is a research associate at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. His research interests include political communication, political consumerism, and the consequences of media-related perceptions.

Marco Dohle

Marco Dohle (Ph.D., Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 2010) is a research associate at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. His research interests include online politcal communication, the consequences of media-related perceptions, and political consumerism.

Dennis Friess

Dennis Friess (Ph.D., Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 2020) is research coordinator of the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy at at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. His research interests include political communication, online participation, online publics, and the role of AI for political online discourses.

Gerhard Vowe

Gerhard Vowe (Ph.D., FU Berlin, 1984) is a senior professor at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. His research interests include political communication, communication theory and collaboration in research units.

Marc Ziegele

Marc Ziegele (Ph.D., Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 2015) is an associate professor of communication research at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. His research focuses on online deliberation, incivility, and media trust.