Does following or engaging in online discussions trigger political participation? Results of two online experiments

This study examines the impact of following congruent online political discussions on political participation. The results of a three-wave panel survey with two embedded experiments indicate that following congruent online political discussions indirectly influences political participation by encouraging active discussion engagement, which in turn stimulates the process proposed in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Our results demonstrate that only actively engaging in online political discussions triggers political participation. These findings underscore the necessity for a differentiated understanding of the influence of online political discussions on political participation, considering the level of engagement within the discussion.