Who Are Ideal Citizens? Predicting Citizenship With Diverse Exposure and Motivations for Cross-Cutting Exposure

• In Event: Cross-Cutting Exposure: Content, Cases, and Effects

Abstract

Although scholars consider it important for individuals to consume diverse information and viewpoints to be politically informed and engaged, empirical evidence accumulated so far casts some doubt on the presumed relationship between diverse exposure and good citizenship. That is, individuals who consume diverse viewpoints may not uniformly garner democratic benefits by becoming more politically informed and engaged. To explain the mixed effects of diverse exposure on political knowledge and participation, the current study proposes and demonstrates three distinct motivations for exposure to cross-cutting viewpoints—defensive dismissal, defensive deliberation and balanced deliberation—by expanding on the theory of motivated reasoning. The findings of the present study suggest the importance of different motivations for exposure to diverse viewpoints—rather than the mere exposure—in predicting democratic citizenship indicators such as political knowledge and participation.

Author

• Dam Hee Kim, U of Michigan