Political Talk and Voting: Does it Matter to Whom One Talks?

Abstract

Until recently, political conversations between voters have been neglected by electoral analysts. But a growing body of work has shown the importance of conversation as an influence on voting decisions. The current paper takes that work a stage further by investigating a range of factors that might modify the impact of political conversations upon voting. Against expectations, most factors fail to alter significantly the operation of the conversation effect. But the content of the conversation is revealed as an important influence. The more individuals found themselves in agreement with their discussant's views, the more likely they were to change their vote to the party favoured by their discussant.