Exposure to Difference on Facebook, Trust, and Political Knowledge

Abstract

ABSTRACT Building off of literatures in the areas of network heterogeneity, oppositional networks, cross-cutting exposure, incidental information exposure, and trust, we suggested that Facebook networks characterized by inclusion of people different from the self have the potential to facilitate the inflow of diverse and attitudinally-dissonant information, and, as such, have potential for political knowledge obtainment. We further theorized that this relationship would be conditioned on forms of social and institutional trust that serve as important attention- and elaboration-inducing cues. The results generally supported these contentions, indicating that the relationship between maintenance of Facebook networks comprised of people perceived to be different than the self and political knowledge was moderated by social trust, trust in knowledge-producing institutions, and news trust. Subsequent analyses suggested that the moderating effects ofnews trust on the relationship between ego-network difference and political knowledge may be further conditioned on political ideology.