Abstract
This study draws on survey data obtained from members in neo-Nazi discussion forums and builds on evidence that participation in these forums exacerbates false consensus, that is, overestimating public support for own views. This study goes further to test whether contacts with dissimilar offline social networks as well as exposure to ideologically dissimilar news media attenuate false consensus and its association with online participation. Contrary to predictions, politically dissimilar networks do not reduce false consensus among the analyzed sample. Exposure to ideologically dissimilar news media, on the other hand, results in more accurate estimates (main effect), but it exacerbates false consensus as resulting from participation in neo-Nazi online groups (interactive effect). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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