From Respondents to Networks Bridging Between Individuals, Discussants, and the Network in the Study of Political Discussion

Much of our understanding of social influence in individual political behavior stems from representative surveys asking respondents to identify characteristics of a small number of people they talk to most frequently. By focusing only on these few close contacts, we have implicitly assumed that less...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitical behavior Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 711 - 735
Main Authors Pietryka, Matthew T., Reilly, Jack Lyons, Maliniak, Daniel M., Miller, Patrick R., Huckfeldt, Robert, Rapoport, Ronald B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.09.2018
Springer US
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Attitudes
College students
Election results
Elections
Influence
Local elections
Middle class
Networks
ORIGINAL PAPER
Participation
Political behavior
Political Science
Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International Studies
Politics
Polls & surveys
Presidential elections
Respondents
Social interaction
Social networks
Social research
Sociology
Working class
Attitudes
Social networks
Name-generator survey batteries
Political behavior
Political discussion
Egocentric networks
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Summary:Much of our understanding of social influence in individual political behavior stems from representative surveys asking respondents to identify characteristics of a small number of people they talk to most frequently. By focusing only on these few close contacts, we have implicitly assumed that less-intimate associates and features of network structure hold little influence over others’ attitudes and behavior. We test these assumptions with a survey that attempted to interview all students at a small university during a highly-salient municipal election. By focusing on a small, well-defined community, we are able to explore the relationship between individuals, their close associates, and also less-immediate associates. We are also able to explore features of network structure unobtainable in representative samples. We demonstrate that these less-immediate associates and network features have the potential to exert important influence that conventional survey approaches would miss.
ISSN:0190-9320
1573-6687
DOI:10.1007/s11109-017-9419-3