How You Are Motivated to Talk Matters: A Moderated-Mediation Model of Political Discussion

• In Event: Political Discussions and Deliberation

Abstract

This study focuses on the influence of discussion motivation and attitude importance on cross-cutting political discussion and discussion elaboration. It argues that individuals’ attitude importance plays a significant role in affecting cross-cutting political discussion, which in turn enhances cognitive elaboration on the discussion. While cross-cutting political discussion mediates the relationship between attitude importance and discussion elaboration, civic motivation plays a moderating role between attitude importance and cross-cutting political discussion. Results from the moderated-mediation analysis suggest that the influence of attitude importance on discussion elaboration operates through face-to-face cross-cutting political discussion at different levels of civic motivation. Therefore, attitude importance and cross-cutting exposure in a face-to-face political discussion lead to greater discussion elaboration, and this occurs only for those who are highly motivated to talk about politics in a civic manner. Implications for citizen competence and the functioning of deliberative democracy are discussed, as well as the limitations of this study.

Authors

• Hsuan-Ting Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Magdalena Saldana, University of Texas at Austin

• Homero Gil de Zuniga, U of Vienna