Diversity, Disagreement, and Expression across Liberal, Conservative, and Mixed Groups

Abstract

ABSTRACT The notion that a healthy democracy requires a public who discusses politics is based on the assumption that discussions expose people to perspective that differ from their own. That people generally prefer to avoid political disagreements, however, suggests that people may withhold their opinions during such encounters. This work couples survey responses and a content analysis of sixty political discussions from a nationally representative sample to investigate the relationships among political opinion expression, diversity, and disagreement and how those variables function across liberal, conservative, and politically heterogeneous groups. Findings challenge the extent to which disagreement dampens political opinion expression and whether ideologically mixed groups expose people to more diverse views than those that are politically homogeneous.