ABSTRACT

The idea that users of social networking sites (SNS) isolate themselves within like-minded, homogeneous communication environments has been receiving growing scholarly attention. Different from studies on the structure of users’ online networks, this work offers initial evidence on the specific behavior of political tie building, i.e., the preferential connection to like-minded SNS users. A pre-registered survey (N = 469) including German Facebook users shows that political like-mindedness serves as criterion of tie selection only for some. Strength of social identification with a political ingroup is related to higher levels of political tie building which, in turn, is positively (albeit weakly) associated with perceived political homogeneity of Facebook ties. This is one of the first studies to identify the relative importance of politics in the process of tie building in online networks. At the same time, it underscores that SNS platforms such as Facebook are spaces of incidental exposure to cross-cutting political views.

抽象的

社交网站（SNS）的用户将自己隔离在志趣相投，同质化的通信环境中的想法已受到越来越多的学术关注。与对用户在线网络结构的研究不同，这项工作为建立政治联系的特定行为提供了初步证据，即与志趣相投的SNS用户的优先联系。预先注册的调查（N= 469）（包括德国Facebook用户）表明，政治志趣相投仅作为某些人选择领带的标准。与政治团体的社会认同感的增强与更高层次的政治联系建立有关，反过来，与建立的Facebook关系在政治上的同质性正相关（尽管较弱）相关。这是最早确定在线网络中建立联系过程中政治相对重要性的研究之一。同时，它强调了诸如Facebook之类的SNS平台是偶然接触跨领域政治观点的空间。