Countering conventional theory, this study found that online homophily and heterophily—connectivity with both similar and dissimilar others—are not necessarily countervailing phenomena, among representative surveys of internet users from five Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, and UAE (N = 4,198). Respondents who said the Internet has increased their contact with politically and religiously similar people also tended to say it increased their contact with politically and religiously dissimilar people. A four-item scale measuring online political and religious homophily and heterophily was reliable (a = .754 overall; .79 among Arab nationals), and is referred to in this article as an ‘idea chamber’ index. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and inter-item correlations of scale items are two additional tests that affirm the internal consistency of the measure. Implications for research on digital communication are discussed.

与传统理论相反，这项研究发现在线同形和异形（与相似和不相似的其他对象之间的连通性）并不一定能抵消现象，这是对五个阿拉伯国家（沙特阿拉伯，突尼斯，黎巴嫩，卡塔尔和阿联酋）的互联网用户进行的代表性调查（N  = 4,198）。表示互联网增加了与政治和宗教相似的人的联系的受访者还倾向于说互联网增加了与政治和宗教相异的人们的联系人们。测量在线政治和宗教同质性和异端性的四项量表是可靠的（总体= 0.754；阿拉伯国民中为0.79），在本文中称为“理想会议厅”指数。验证性因素分析和规模项目的项目间相关性是另外两个检验，用以确认度量的内部一致性。讨论了对数字通信研究的意义。