What Makes Someone a Cyber Balkan? Finding the Linkages Between Social Psychology and Self-Selectivity in U.S. Politics Online

Abstract

Although the expansion of the Internet has impacted political discourse in the United States and elsewhere, it is unclear whether these changes will have a predominantly positive or negative effect on public discourse. It is found here that the offline environments and the idiosyncratic characteristics of politically interested Internet users in the United States led to differing patterns of self-selective information exposure for both liberals and conservatives. An online survey with 624 respondents showed that high levels of dogmatism and shared family views predict high cyber balkanization for conservatives. However, the opposite was true of liberals, as the highest levels of cyber balkanization were found for those with low levels of dogmatism and a perception that their family members did not share their political values.