Interacting effects of political social media use, political discussion and political trust on civic engagement: Extending the differential gains model

Abstract

The differential gains model has lent credence to the fact that the positive association between news consumption and political engagement differs across people who discuss politics more often and those who do not. This study extends the original differential gains model by incorporating a second moderator, political trust, and replicating in three Asian societies: Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China. In addition to the main associations, results lent partial support to the original hypothesis in the context of Japan. Moreover, a three-way interaction emerged in China Mainland. That is, among Chinese who have higher levels of political social media use, those who discuss politics more often and distrust political institutions showed higher levels of civic engagement. This study advances the original differential gains model into a moderated moderation model. Beyond the communicative factors, results revealed the importance of political trust in buffering media effects.