We test the role of like-minded and cross-cutting political discussion as a facilitator of online and offline political participation and examine the role of strong versus weak network ties. Most prior research on the topic has employed cross-sectional designs that may lead to spurious relationships due to the lack of controlled variables. The findings of a two-wave panel survey controlling the autoregressive effects suggest that cross-cutting talk with weak ties significantly dampens online but not offline political participation. However, no such effects were detectable for cross-cutting talk with strong ties. In addition, we found no effect of discussions involving like-minded individuals in either weak or strong network connections on online and offline forms of political engagement. Implications are discussed.

中文翻译：

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志趣相投的话题，网络特征以及在线和离线的政治参与：小组讨论

我们测试了志趣相投且贯穿各领域的政治讨论作为在线和离线政治参与的促进者的作用，并研究了强弱网络联系的作用。此前有关该主题的大多数研究都采用了横截面设计，由于缺乏受控变量，这些横截面设计可能导致虚假关系。两波小组控制自回归效应的调查结果表明，联系薄弱的跨部门谈话会大大抑制在线互动，但不会削弱离线政治参与。但是，对于具有牢固关系的跨领域谈话，没有发现任何此类影响。此外，我们发现，无论是弱势网络还是强势网络，志同道合的个人参与的讨论对在线和离线政治参与形式都没有影响。讨论了含义。