magdalena wojcieszak | University of Amsterdam, ASCoR (2025)

Papers by magdalena wojcieszak

Explaining Media Choice: The Role of Issue-Specific Engagement in Predicting Interest-Based and Partisan Selectivity

This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choic... more This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choice of entertainment over politics) and partisan (i.e., choice of pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal or balanced news). Relying on a large survey-based experiment, we find that issue-specific engagement variables, including perceived issue understanding, issue importance, and issue attitude strength, predict interest-based and partisan selectivity above and beyond the influence of general political knowledge, news interest, and strength of political leanings. These results show that the drivers of selectivity are more complex than general political attributes; rather, they are contextual and reflect people’s engagement with particular issues

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Participation, Representation and Expertise: Citizen Preferences for Political Decision-Making Processes

by Joan Font Fabregas and magdalena wojcieszak

Political Studies http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9248.12191/abstract, Feb 2015

In this article, it is shown that citizen process preferences are complex and include several dim... more In this article, it is shown that citizen process preferences are complex and include several dimensions. The argument relies on data from a representative sample of Spanish citizens (N = 2,450) to assess these dimensions. Using confirmatory factor analysis as well as Mokken analysis, it is shown that citizen process preferences capture support for three different models: participatory, representative and expert-based. The relationships between these dimensions (where the opposition between representation and participation stands as the clearest result) and the substantive and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.

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Deliberation and Attitude Polarization

This study draws on quasi-experimental data from participants in heterogeneous face-toface delibe... more This study draws on quasi-experimental data from participants in heterogeneous face-toface deliberations on sexual minority rights in Poland. It examines whether disagreement perceived during deliberation decreases-as deliberative theorists hope-or rather exacerbates-as psychological research predicts-extreme views. The study also analyzes whether extreme deliberators report that their views were polarized and whether self-reported polarization is greater following deliberations perceived as contentious. Third, the study tests the correspondence between pre-to posttest and self-reported polarization measures. As predicted, extreme deliberators who perceived disagreement polarized on the discussed policies and on issues more generally related to sexual minorities and also reported greater opinion polarization. Validating the self-reported measure with the binary index suggests that deliberators relatively accurately reported polarization.

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‘‘Carrying Online Participation Offline’’—Mobilization by Radical Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties

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'Don't talk to me': effects of ideologically homogeneous online groups and politically dissimilar offline ties on extremism

This study analyzes cross-sectional data obtained from respondents in neo-Nazi online discussion ... more This study analyzes cross-sectional data obtained from respondents in neo-Nazi online discussion forums and textual data from postings to these forums. It assesses the impact of participation in radical and homogeneous online groups on opinion extremism and probes whether this impact depends on political dissimilarity of strong and weak offline ties. Specifically, does dissimilarity attenuate (as deliberative theorists hope) or rather exacerbate (as research on biased processing predicts) extreme opinions? As expected, extremism increases with increased online participation, likely due to the informational and normative influences operating within online groups. Supporting the deliberative and biased processing models, both like-minded and dissimilar social ties offline exacerbate extremism. Consistent with the biased processing model, dissimilar offline ties exacerbate the effects of online groups. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Does Online Selectivity Create a Threat to Deliberative Democracy: Cyber Skepticism Reconsidered

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Hostile Public Effect: Communication Diversity and the Projection of Personal Opinions onto Others

samples and on diverse issues. The mechanisms underlying these effects and the factors that mitig... more samples and on diverse issues. The mechanisms underlying these effects and the factors that mitigate or exacerbate them are less extensively researched, however.

Download

False Consensus Goes Online: Impact of Ideologically Homogeneous Online Groups on False Consensus

This study analyzes survey data obtained from members of neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist di... more This study analyzes survey data obtained from members of neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist discussion forums. It assesses the extent to which participants in homogeneous online groups exhibit false consensus, i.e., overestimate public support for their views, and whether the overestimation increases with increased online participation. Although the analyzed sample overestimates public support, the overestimation is no greater than found with more conventional populations studied to date. However, false consensus among the neo-Nazis increases with their involvement in online groups, also controlling for extremism. Among the environmentalists, it is the extremism, not online participation that accounts for false consensus. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Don’t Expect Too Much! Relationship between Learning from Late-Night Comedy and Knowledge Item Difficulty

The debate on late night comedy has been inconclusive, with some scholars arguing that this genre... more The debate on late night comedy has been inconclusive, with some scholars arguing that this genre increases political knowledge, and others seeing late night comedy as harmful to effective citizenry. We add to the debate and to the research on media effects more generally, by proposing a model that measures political knowledge. The model utilizes item response theory (IRT) to account for individual characteristics, knowledge item difficulty, and response format that influences the likelihood of providing a correct response. Drawing on the 2004 National Annenberg Election Study, we employ this model to test knowledge gain from late night comedy. Using a meta-analysis across 35 political knowledge items, we show that late night comedy increases knowledge, but primarily on easy political items that have fewer correct response options, and mainly among the inattentive citizens. We discuss theoretical implications and provide practical suggestions for scholarship on media effects.

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Transnational Connections Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities for Political Communication Research

Political communication scholars today do not suffer from a shortage of issues to study. On the c... more Political communication scholars today do not suffer from a shortage of issues to study. On the contrary, the opportunities abound. One need only recall the WikiLeaks scandal, which underscored the unprecedented access to political information available to citizens and the decreased elite control over the backstage messages received by them (see Benkler, 2010). Other timely examples include the debate as to whether to publish the postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden or the technologically-deterministic claims as to the still ongoing Facebook and Twitter revolutions in the Middle East, claims paired with cautionary evidence that revolutions will not be tweeted (see .

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Bridging the Divide or Intensifying the Conflict? How Disagreement Affects Strong Predilections about Sexual Minorities

This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same... more This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same-sex marriage, to examine whether exposure to perceived disagreement decreases-as the deliberative theorists hope-or rather increases-as the research on confirmation bias predicts-strongly held predilections. Overall, participants' views towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights remained largely unchanged after deliberating, regardless of the ideological composition of their groups. Consistent with the confirmation bias model, those who strongly opposed same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights prior to the discussions and who perceived that others disagreed with them became even more opposed, and this effect was not a short-term shift. Strong proponents, on the other hand, did not polarize in their views, but instead became slightly less favorable towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights as a result of disagreement. Implications of these findings for deliberation of contentious issues are discussed.

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Al Jazeera: A Challenge to the Traditional Framing Research

This article examines framing research and the challenges posed to this model by al Jazeera. The ... more This article examines framing research and the challenges posed to this model by al Jazeera. The study argues that traditional framing scholarship might not be applicable to analyzing al Jazeera and other satellite channels because it presumes the impact of political elites on the framing process, conceives of the media as hegemonic, is idiosyncratic to the American media and power arrangements, and does not account for new information communication technologies. Al Jazeera, on the other hand, is a satellite channel relatively autonomous from domestic media regulations and national power structures, originated in the continuously evolving media landscape and sociopolitical context of the Middle East, and has been considered a counter-hegemonic force in the Arab world that challenges its dominant social discourse and the existing political order.

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Facts Versus Perceptions: Who Reports Disagreement During Deliberation and Are the Reports Accurate?

Although deliberative scholarship is often concerned with disagreement, two issues remain unaddre... more Although deliberative scholarship is often concerned with disagreement, two issues remain unaddressed. Little is known about individual characteristics that make people perceive disagreement during deliberation. Even less is known about perceptual accuracy. Do people accurately report the disagreement they encounter in deliberative settings? This study addresses these gaps. We draw on a sample of participants in structured and moderated online groups to (a) analyze the factors that lead people to report disagreement and (b) test the correspondence between perceived and objective measures. In general, we find that the two sets of measures corresponded only weakly, but that objective disagreement had somewhat greater impact on perceived disagreement on three value-laden and contentious issues. Holding extreme positions on the issues discussed did not affect perceived disagreement, and political knowledge exerted only limited effects. Still, both opinion extremity and knowledge did-on some issues-increase sensitivity to opposing views when they were actually expressed in discussion. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

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Computer-Mediated False Consensus: Radical Online Groups, Social Networks and News Media

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Deliberative and Participatory Democracy? Ideological Strength and the Processes Leading from Deliberation to Political Engagement

We draw on a nationally representative sample of American adults who reported having participated... more We draw on a nationally representative sample of American adults who reported having participated in face-to-face deliberation (N ¼ 756). We use structural equation modeling to first ask whether perceived political diversity differently influences follow-up engagement in various civic or political activities among strong, weak, and moderate ideologues. We also examine the processes-cognitive and affectivethat lead from perceived diversity to follow-up engagement, and assess whether these processes depend on ideological strength. We find that follow-up political engagement among strong ideologues is primarily affected by their prior civic and political participation. Weak ideologues, in turn, are mobilized through cognitive reactions to perceived diversity, and moderates through affective reactions. Our results add to the debate on deliberative versus participatory democracy, suggesting that research should more closely attend to individual characteristics and underlying mechanisms.

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Frankfurtschool.com: The Application of the Frankfurt Schools’ Critical Scholarship to the Internet

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Correlates of party, ideology and issue based extremity in an era of egocentric publics

We extend the study of political extremity to an evolving media landscape. We differentiate betwe... more We extend the study of political extremity to an evolving media landscape. We differentiate between political and non-political uses of both "traditional" and "new" media, and situate political extremity within a new conceptualization of publicegocentric publics -a meso-level phenomenon enabled by new communication technologies that overcomes the traditional dichotomy of small groups and mass publics. Testing the relationship between information, expression, and extremity in Colombia, a sociopolitical context with high levels of polarization and distrust, we find that traditional media use is mostly unrelated to the tested forms of extremity: party-, ideology-, or issue-based. In turn, expressive Internet use is related to extremity and-contrary to what some commentators have fearedthis relationship is negative. Lower extremity associated with online expression is consistent with the notion of egocentric publics advanced in this article. The results underscore the importance of differentiating between various media formats in political communication research, reveal the media correlates of various forms of extremity can take, and provide evidence that the emerging publics made possible by new media are not necessarily polarizing. Downloaded from

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When Deliberation Divides: Processes Underlying Mobilization to Collective Action.

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What is really going on: Structure Underlying Online and Face to Face Deliberation

Structure underlying face-to-face and online deliberation Does deliberative setting, online versu... more Structure underlying face-to-face and online deliberation Does deliberative setting, online versus face-to-face, influence citizens' experiences? Are certain factors differently influential in one setting than in the other? We draw on a nationally representative survey and identify citizens who participated in both online and face-to-face settings (n ¼ 82). We use structural equation modeling to first assess the effects that deliberation format has on the interrelationship between such crucial factors as motivations to deliberate, perceived diversity, elicited emotions, enhanced understanding, and goal evaluation. We later employ network analysis to ask which factor or which cluster of factors is more central to an overall experience in which format. Relying on citizens who participated in both settings and using within-subject analyses, we assure that the previously unnoted findings are attributable to the format per se rather than to individual characteristics. We discuss the theoretical, practical and methodological implications.

Download

Pulling Toward or Pulling Away: Deliberation, Disagreement, and Opinion Extremity in Political Participation

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Explaining Media Choice: The Role of Issue-Specific Engagement in Predicting Interest-Based and Partisan Selectivity

This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choic... more This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choice of entertainment over politics) and partisan (i.e., choice of pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal or balanced news). Relying on a large survey-based experiment, we find that issue-specific engagement variables, including perceived issue understanding, issue importance, and issue attitude strength, predict interest-based and partisan selectivity above and beyond the influence of general political knowledge, news interest, and strength of political leanings. These results show that the drivers of selectivity are more complex than general political attributes; rather, they are contextual and reflect people’s engagement with particular issues

Download

Participation, Representation and Expertise: Citizen Preferences for Political Decision-Making Processes

by Joan Font Fabregas and magdalena wojcieszak

Political Studies http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9248.12191/abstract, Feb 2015

In this article, it is shown that citizen process preferences are complex and include several dim... more In this article, it is shown that citizen process preferences are complex and include several dimensions. The argument relies on data from a representative sample of Spanish citizens (N = 2,450) to assess these dimensions. Using confirmatory factor analysis as well as Mokken analysis, it is shown that citizen process preferences capture support for three different models: participatory, representative and expert-based. The relationships between these dimensions (where the opposition between representation and participation stands as the clearest result) and the substantive and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.

Download

Deliberation and Attitude Polarization

This study draws on quasi-experimental data from participants in heterogeneous face-toface delibe... more This study draws on quasi-experimental data from participants in heterogeneous face-toface deliberations on sexual minority rights in Poland. It examines whether disagreement perceived during deliberation decreases-as deliberative theorists hope-or rather exacerbates-as psychological research predicts-extreme views. The study also analyzes whether extreme deliberators report that their views were polarized and whether self-reported polarization is greater following deliberations perceived as contentious. Third, the study tests the correspondence between pre-to posttest and self-reported polarization measures. As predicted, extreme deliberators who perceived disagreement polarized on the discussed policies and on issues more generally related to sexual minorities and also reported greater opinion polarization. Validating the self-reported measure with the binary index suggests that deliberators relatively accurately reported polarization.

Download

‘‘Carrying Online Participation Offline’’—Mobilization by Radical Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties

Download

'Don't talk to me': effects of ideologically homogeneous online groups and politically dissimilar offline ties on extremism

This study analyzes cross-sectional data obtained from respondents in neo-Nazi online discussion ... more This study analyzes cross-sectional data obtained from respondents in neo-Nazi online discussion forums and textual data from postings to these forums. It assesses the impact of participation in radical and homogeneous online groups on opinion extremism and probes whether this impact depends on political dissimilarity of strong and weak offline ties. Specifically, does dissimilarity attenuate (as deliberative theorists hope) or rather exacerbate (as research on biased processing predicts) extreme opinions? As expected, extremism increases with increased online participation, likely due to the informational and normative influences operating within online groups. Supporting the deliberative and biased processing models, both like-minded and dissimilar social ties offline exacerbate extremism. Consistent with the biased processing model, dissimilar offline ties exacerbate the effects of online groups. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Download

Does Online Selectivity Create a Threat to Deliberative Democracy: Cyber Skepticism Reconsidered

Download

Hostile Public Effect: Communication Diversity and the Projection of Personal Opinions onto Others

samples and on diverse issues. The mechanisms underlying these effects and the factors that mitig... more samples and on diverse issues. The mechanisms underlying these effects and the factors that mitigate or exacerbate them are less extensively researched, however.

Download

False Consensus Goes Online: Impact of Ideologically Homogeneous Online Groups on False Consensus

This study analyzes survey data obtained from members of neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist di... more This study analyzes survey data obtained from members of neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist discussion forums. It assesses the extent to which participants in homogeneous online groups exhibit false consensus, i.e., overestimate public support for their views, and whether the overestimation increases with increased online participation. Although the analyzed sample overestimates public support, the overestimation is no greater than found with more conventional populations studied to date. However, false consensus among the neo-Nazis increases with their involvement in online groups, also controlling for extremism. Among the environmentalists, it is the extremism, not online participation that accounts for false consensus. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Download

Don’t Expect Too Much! Relationship between Learning from Late-Night Comedy and Knowledge Item Difficulty

The debate on late night comedy has been inconclusive, with some scholars arguing that this genre... more The debate on late night comedy has been inconclusive, with some scholars arguing that this genre increases political knowledge, and others seeing late night comedy as harmful to effective citizenry. We add to the debate and to the research on media effects more generally, by proposing a model that measures political knowledge. The model utilizes item response theory (IRT) to account for individual characteristics, knowledge item difficulty, and response format that influences the likelihood of providing a correct response. Drawing on the 2004 National Annenberg Election Study, we employ this model to test knowledge gain from late night comedy. Using a meta-analysis across 35 political knowledge items, we show that late night comedy increases knowledge, but primarily on easy political items that have fewer correct response options, and mainly among the inattentive citizens. We discuss theoretical implications and provide practical suggestions for scholarship on media effects.

Download

Transnational Connections Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities for Political Communication Research

Political communication scholars today do not suffer from a shortage of issues to study. On the c... more Political communication scholars today do not suffer from a shortage of issues to study. On the contrary, the opportunities abound. One need only recall the WikiLeaks scandal, which underscored the unprecedented access to political information available to citizens and the decreased elite control over the backstage messages received by them (see Benkler, 2010). Other timely examples include the debate as to whether to publish the postmortem photos of Osama bin Laden or the technologically-deterministic claims as to the still ongoing Facebook and Twitter revolutions in the Middle East, claims paired with cautionary evidence that revolutions will not be tweeted (see .

Download

Bridging the Divide or Intensifying the Conflict? How Disagreement Affects Strong Predilections about Sexual Minorities

This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same... more This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same-sex marriage, to examine whether exposure to perceived disagreement decreases-as the deliberative theorists hope-or rather increases-as the research on confirmation bias predicts-strongly held predilections. Overall, participants' views towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights remained largely unchanged after deliberating, regardless of the ideological composition of their groups. Consistent with the confirmation bias model, those who strongly opposed same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights prior to the discussions and who perceived that others disagreed with them became even more opposed, and this effect was not a short-term shift. Strong proponents, on the other hand, did not polarize in their views, but instead became slightly less favorable towards same-sex marriage and sexual minority rights as a result of disagreement. Implications of these findings for deliberation of contentious issues are discussed.

Download

Al Jazeera: A Challenge to the Traditional Framing Research

This article examines framing research and the challenges posed to this model by al Jazeera. The ... more This article examines framing research and the challenges posed to this model by al Jazeera. The study argues that traditional framing scholarship might not be applicable to analyzing al Jazeera and other satellite channels because it presumes the impact of political elites on the framing process, conceives of the media as hegemonic, is idiosyncratic to the American media and power arrangements, and does not account for new information communication technologies. Al Jazeera, on the other hand, is a satellite channel relatively autonomous from domestic media regulations and national power structures, originated in the continuously evolving media landscape and sociopolitical context of the Middle East, and has been considered a counter-hegemonic force in the Arab world that challenges its dominant social discourse and the existing political order.

Download

Facts Versus Perceptions: Who Reports Disagreement During Deliberation and Are the Reports Accurate?

Although deliberative scholarship is often concerned with disagreement, two issues remain unaddre... more Although deliberative scholarship is often concerned with disagreement, two issues remain unaddressed. Little is known about individual characteristics that make people perceive disagreement during deliberation. Even less is known about perceptual accuracy. Do people accurately report the disagreement they encounter in deliberative settings? This study addresses these gaps. We draw on a sample of participants in structured and moderated online groups to (a) analyze the factors that lead people to report disagreement and (b) test the correspondence between perceived and objective measures. In general, we find that the two sets of measures corresponded only weakly, but that objective disagreement had somewhat greater impact on perceived disagreement on three value-laden and contentious issues. Holding extreme positions on the issues discussed did not affect perceived disagreement, and political knowledge exerted only limited effects. Still, both opinion extremity and knowledge did-on some issues-increase sensitivity to opposing views when they were actually expressed in discussion. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Download

Computer-Mediated False Consensus: Radical Online Groups, Social Networks and News Media

Download

Deliberative and Participatory Democracy? Ideological Strength and the Processes Leading from Deliberation to Political Engagement

We draw on a nationally representative sample of American adults who reported having participated... more We draw on a nationally representative sample of American adults who reported having participated in face-to-face deliberation (N ¼ 756). We use structural equation modeling to first ask whether perceived political diversity differently influences follow-up engagement in various civic or political activities among strong, weak, and moderate ideologues. We also examine the processes-cognitive and affectivethat lead from perceived diversity to follow-up engagement, and assess whether these processes depend on ideological strength. We find that follow-up political engagement among strong ideologues is primarily affected by their prior civic and political participation. Weak ideologues, in turn, are mobilized through cognitive reactions to perceived diversity, and moderates through affective reactions. Our results add to the debate on deliberative versus participatory democracy, suggesting that research should more closely attend to individual characteristics and underlying mechanisms.

Download

Frankfurtschool.com: The Application of the Frankfurt Schools’ Critical Scholarship to the Internet

Download

Correlates of party, ideology and issue based extremity in an era of egocentric publics

We extend the study of political extremity to an evolving media landscape. We differentiate betwe... more We extend the study of political extremity to an evolving media landscape. We differentiate between political and non-political uses of both "traditional" and "new" media, and situate political extremity within a new conceptualization of publicegocentric publics -a meso-level phenomenon enabled by new communication technologies that overcomes the traditional dichotomy of small groups and mass publics. Testing the relationship between information, expression, and extremity in Colombia, a sociopolitical context with high levels of polarization and distrust, we find that traditional media use is mostly unrelated to the tested forms of extremity: party-, ideology-, or issue-based. In turn, expressive Internet use is related to extremity and-contrary to what some commentators have fearedthis relationship is negative. Lower extremity associated with online expression is consistent with the notion of egocentric publics advanced in this article. The results underscore the importance of differentiating between various media formats in political communication research, reveal the media correlates of various forms of extremity can take, and provide evidence that the emerging publics made possible by new media are not necessarily polarizing. Downloaded from

Download

When Deliberation Divides: Processes Underlying Mobilization to Collective Action.

Download

What is really going on: Structure Underlying Online and Face to Face Deliberation

Structure underlying face-to-face and online deliberation Does deliberative setting, online versu... more Structure underlying face-to-face and online deliberation Does deliberative setting, online versus face-to-face, influence citizens' experiences? Are certain factors differently influential in one setting than in the other? We draw on a nationally representative survey and identify citizens who participated in both online and face-to-face settings (n ¼ 82). We use structural equation modeling to first assess the effects that deliberation format has on the interrelationship between such crucial factors as motivations to deliberate, perceived diversity, elicited emotions, enhanced understanding, and goal evaluation. We later employ network analysis to ask which factor or which cluster of factors is more central to an overall experience in which format. Relying on citizens who participated in both settings and using within-subject analyses, we assure that the previously unnoted findings are attributable to the format per se rather than to individual characteristics. We discuss the theoretical, practical and methodological implications.

Download

Pulling Toward or Pulling Away: Deliberation, Disagreement, and Opinion Extremity in Political Participation

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magdalena wojcieszak | University of Amsterdam, ASCoR (2025)
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