Abstract

This study investigates factors predicting political information sharing on social media in the election context. Specifically, the current study examines how users’ six motivations for political information sharing and exposure to political disagreement on social media predict their political information sharing behaviors. Analyses of national survey data collected before the 2018 U.S. midterm election suggest that criticism, informing, and socialization motivations, but not expression, awareness, and self-promotion motivations, positively predict political information sharing on social media. Individuals are more likely to share political information when they are exposed to information that is disagreeable. This relationship is stronger among individuals with higher epistemic political efficacy and lower political knowledge.

摘要

本研究调查了在选举背景下预测社交媒体上政治信息共享的因素。具体而言，当前的研究考察了用户分享政治信息的六种动机以及在社交媒体上暴露于政治分歧的情况如何预测他们的政治信息分享行为。对 2018 年美国中期选举前收集的全国调查数据的分析表明，批评、告知和社交动机，而不是表达、意识和自我推销动机，可以积极预测社交媒体上的政治信息共享。当个人接触到令人不快的信息时，他们更有可能分享政治信息。这种关系在具有较高认知政治效能和较低政治知识的个体中更为强烈。