How do Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation? Evidence from 17 European Countries

Laia Castro; Yannis Theocharis; Agnieszka Stępińska; David Nicolas Hopmann; Christian Schemer; Toril Aalberg; Ana Sofia Cardenal; Nicoleta Corbu; Claes de Vreese; Frank Esser; Karolina Koc-Michalska; Jörg Matthes; Tamir Sheafer; Sergio Splendore; James Stanyer; Jesper Strömbäck; Václav Štětka; Peter Van Aelst; Alon Zoizner

doi:10.1177/20563051251350978

How do Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation? Evidence from 17 European Countries

Laia Castro^*
, Yannis Theocharis
, Agnieszka Stępińska
, David Nicolas Hopmann
, Christian Schemer
, Toril Aalberg
, Ana Sofia Cardenal
, Nicoleta Corbu
, Claes de Vreese
, Frank Esser
, Karolina Koc-Michalska
, Jörg Matthes
, Tamir Sheafer
, Sergio Splendore
, James Stanyer
, Jesper Strömbäck
, Václav Štětka
, Peter Van Aelst
, Alon Zoizner

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for public deliberation. However, a growing number of users perceive negativity in political debate taking place in those venues and are increasingly frustrated when discussing politics with those they disagree with. In this article, we test the proposition that perceiving online discussions as healthier (i.e. more polite and civil) than offline discussions invigorates online political participation. We rely on an online survey fielded in 17 European countries on more than 28,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that being embedded in healthier discussions on social media is more of an important predictor of online participation for those respondents reporting higher political discussion fatigue and less so for those perceiving online discussions as fun. Overall, our study offers cross-national evidence of why and for whom exposure to healthy political discussions online might be mobilizing.

Original language	English
Journal	Social Media and Society
Volume	11
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251350978
State	Published - 1 Oct 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

cross-national
online incivility
political discussions
political participation
social media

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Cite this

Castro, L., Theocharis, Y., Stępińska, A., Hopmann, D. N., Schemer, C., Aalberg, T., Cardenal, A. S., Corbu, N., de Vreese, C., Esser, F., Koc-Michalska, K., Matthes, J., Sheafer, T., Splendore, S., Stanyer, J., Strömbäck, J., Štětka, V., Van Aelst, P., & Zoizner, A. (2025). How do Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation? Evidence from 17 European Countries. Social Media and Society, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251350978

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abstract = "Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for public deliberation. However, a growing number of users perceive negativity in political debate taking place in those venues and are increasingly frustrated when discussing politics with those they disagree with. In this article, we test the proposition that perceiving online discussions as healthier (i.e. more polite and civil) than offline discussions invigorates online political participation. We rely on an online survey fielded in 17 European countries on more than 28,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that being embedded in healthier discussions on social media is more of an important predictor of online participation for those respondents reporting higher political discussion fatigue and less so for those perceiving online discussions as fun. Overall, our study offers cross-national evidence of why and for whom exposure to healthy political discussions online might be mobilizing.",

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Castro, L, Theocharis, Y, Stępińska, A, Hopmann, DN, Schemer, C, Aalberg, T, Cardenal, AS, Corbu, N, de Vreese, C, Esser, F, Koc-Michalska, K, Matthes, J, Sheafer, T, Splendore, S, Stanyer, J, Strömbäck, J, Štětka, V, Van Aelst, P & Zoizner, A 2025, 'How do Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation? Evidence from 17 European Countries', Social Media and Society, vol. 11, no. 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251350978

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AU - Castro, Laia

AU - Theocharis, Yannis

AU - Stępińska, Agnieszka

AU - Hopmann, David Nicolas

AU - Schemer, Christian

AU - Aalberg, Toril

AU - Cardenal, Ana Sofia

AU - Corbu, Nicoleta

AU - de Vreese, Claes

AU - Esser, Frank

AU - Koc-Michalska, Karolina

AU - Matthes, Jörg

AU - Sheafer, Tamir

AU - Splendore, Sergio

AU - Stanyer, James

AU - Strömbäck, Jesper

AU - Štětka, Václav

AU - Van Aelst, Peter

AU - Zoizner, Alon

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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N2 - Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for public deliberation. However, a growing number of users perceive negativity in political debate taking place in those venues and are increasingly frustrated when discussing politics with those they disagree with. In this article, we test the proposition that perceiving online discussions as healthier (i.e. more polite and civil) than offline discussions invigorates online political participation. We rely on an online survey fielded in 17 European countries on more than 28,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that being embedded in healthier discussions on social media is more of an important predictor of online participation for those respondents reporting higher political discussion fatigue and less so for those perceiving online discussions as fun. Overall, our study offers cross-national evidence of why and for whom exposure to healthy political discussions online might be mobilizing.

AB - Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for public deliberation. However, a growing number of users perceive negativity in political debate taking place in those venues and are increasingly frustrated when discussing politics with those they disagree with. In this article, we test the proposition that perceiving online discussions as healthier (i.e. more polite and civil) than offline discussions invigorates online political participation. We rely on an online survey fielded in 17 European countries on more than 28,000 individuals. Our findings indicate that being embedded in healthier discussions on social media is more of an important predictor of online participation for those respondents reporting higher political discussion fatigue and less so for those perceiving online discussions as fun. Overall, our study offers cross-national evidence of why and for whom exposure to healthy political discussions online might be mobilizing.

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KW - political participation

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How do Healthy Political Discussions Invigorate Online Participation? Evidence from 17 European Countries

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Keywords

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