Exploring Political Discussion Motivations: Relationships with Different Forms of Political Talk

This study expands political discussion scholarship by examining the relationship between six motivations for political discussion (i.e., educate oneself, learn about others, influence others, be social, and build relationships) and five forms of political talk (i.e., overall discussion frequency, discussion involving agreement, disagreement, strong ties, and weak ties). Survey results demonstrate that different motivations are associated with different forms of political talk. These findings suggest that motivations offer significant potential for advancing understanding of what drives the most common manifestations (agreement, strong-tie discussion) and the most deliberative and democratically beneficial (disagreement, weak-tie discussion) forms of political discussion.