When One Speaks Out and When One Does Not: Online Discussion Forums for Opinion Expression

Abstract

Individuals’ opinion expression about public affairs has entered a new phase with the growth of new venues for social interaction among fellow citizens such as online discussion forums. However, not much empirical evidence exists to understand an individual’s voicing views in online discussion. Focusing on this attention-deserved form of political activity online, the current dissertation aimed to yield insights into some fundamental questions: who, with what characteristics, more intends and tends to talk on an online discussion forum, and what forum conditions (and combinations of them) facilitate an individual’s opinion expression intention and behavior. To investigate these questions, two experimental research methods – scenario-based thought and website-based true experiments – were implemented. Thought experiments relied on a hypothetical scenario technique, the most widely used method in spiral of silence research, but employed the multifaceted, detailed scenarios. True experiments, on the other hand, used the stimulus online forums designed for this study to actually place the participants in the online discussion situation. The findings from these two different approaches indicated that a person’s race, issue involvement, issue knowledge, and the revelation of identity were factors that generally influenced opinion expression online. Racial minorities, compared to Whites, were consistently more willing and likely to voice their views on the online forum. Those who were involved in and knowledgeable about the issue under discussion were more likely to post messages to the forum. Disclosing one’s real name and other personal information was a big hindrance to actual opinion expression on the discussion forum. However, comparing the findings from scenarios to those obtained from real, analogous situations also revealed that the use of scenarios could not accurately identify some existing phenomena. Thought and true experiments returned incongruent predictions regarding the roles of age, fear of isolation, and the votes climate as well as the contribution degree of issue knowledge (to posting intention). In particular, trait fear of isolation, which has been pointed out as the primary culprit behind silencing minority opinion holders, played a completely opposite role. Against the background of these findings, the theoretical and methodological implications of the study were discussed.