How individual sensitivities to disagreement shape youth political expression on Facebook

Emily K. Vraga; Kjerstin Thorson; Neta Kligler-Vilenchik; Emily Gee

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.025

How individual sensitivities to disagreement shape youth political expression on Facebook

Emily K. Vraga, Kjerstin Thorson, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, Emily Gee

Journalism and Mass Communication

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

66 Scopus citations

Abstract

Social networking sites like Facebook increasingly shape youth engagement with politics, but less is known about the factors that shape willingness to engage in political interaction on the site. This study combines twenty in-depth interviews with a survey of young adults to examine how individual predispositions, perceptions of the Facebook political climate, and network characteristics shape attitudes and behaviors toward posting political content on Facebook. Our results suggest that predispositions like political interest and conflict avoidance create distinct "sensitivities" to Facebook's political climate and the potential for contentious political disagreement that condition willingness to post about politics.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	281-289
Number of pages	9
Journal	Computers in Human Behavior
Volume	45
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.025
State	Published - Apr 2015

Keywords

Conflict avoidance
Discussion norms
Heterogeneous discussion
Political communication
Social media

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