Does political discussion in democracy stem from deliberate choices or random encounters? This paper compares two models. One suggests people seek out knowledgeable and politically similar discussants (purposive model). The other proposes politics is often a side effect of social interactions unrelated to ideology (incidental model). Using unique whole-network panel data across multiple sites, we find incidental connections dominate over expected purposive ones.
| The Incidental Pundit: Who Talks Politics with Whom, and Why? was authored by William Minozzi, Hyunjin Song, David M.J. Lazer, Michael A. Neblo and Katherine Ognyanova. It was published by Wiley in AJPS in 2020. |
