They are Watching Me: A Self-Presentational Approach to Political Expression on Facebook

What Will They Think If I Post This? Risks and Returns for Political Expression Across Platforms

“…Evidence for the value of risk-reward tradeoff is captured well in the positive effect of perceived homophily on willingness to engage in political expression on Facebook and Twitter. Heterogeneous networks allow for higher perceived possibilities of interpersonal conflict, making political expression on these networks more risky (Barnidge et al, 2018; Rui et al, 2020). Still, Barnidge et al (2018) found an association between heterophily and online discussion, using a measure combining online and offline networks.…”

“…These audiences include people users may or may not know in person and with whom they may have different kinds of social relationships such as colleagues, close friends, relatives, and friends-of-friends. Depending on the nature of political issues and the social relationships individuals may have with their audiences, political expression may be perceived to have different levels of social costs, motivating individuals to self-present strategically on SNSs (Rui et al, 2020). Perceptions of context collapse can lead to self-censorship (Vitak et al, 2015).…”

“…In line with past research, we conceptualize risks as conditions from which interpersonal challenges may arise (Barnidge et al, 2018). Risks may include perceived ideological compatibility with social media connections (i.e., ideological homophily), social costs, self-presentational preferences, or perceived civility of online political discussions (Rui et al, 2020). In contrast, returns represent past experiences that have led to a perceived benefit.…”

How technological affordances predict political expression via Quora: Mediated by risk appraisal and moderated by social motivation

“…Additional research extended the spiral of silence theory by showing that other forms of risks can also inhibit political expression (Liu et al, 2017;Mosher, 1989;Rui et al, 2020;Yun & Park, 2011). For example, individuals can be reluctant to express their true opinion if the topic is morally loaded and controversial because they are afraid of being morally judged (Mosher, 1989).…”

“…In addition, previous research demonstrated a linear relationship between cost-benefit evaluation and political expression such that costs are negatively related to political expression, but benefits are positively related to political expression (Lane et al, 2019;Neubaum, 2021;Neubaum & Krämer, 2018;Rui et al, 2020). However, the expectancy-value theory suggests that individuals may be less motivated to avoid potential sanction if they dismiss the importance of these costs (Eccles et al, 1983;Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).…”