Unintended Politics: The Prevalence of Partisan Opinion Expression in Incidental Political Discussions

Abstract

Political discussion happening in non-political contexts, referred to as incidental political discussion, is abundant in the everyday lives of ordinary people. However, the characteristics of incidental political discussion are still understudied. Analysis of nearly three thousand comments on mass shootings and gun control across both political and non-political communities on Reddit showed that incidental political discussions are more likely to contain partisan opinion expression on the same issue than purposive political discussions. In addition, the level of incivility did not differ between the two kinds of discussions. This study implies that non-political spaces may become more partisan than political ones in reaction to specific news events, and contributes to the scholarship on political discussion and ideological polarization, highlighting the dynamic nature of political discourse in various contexts.