Screw the majority? Examining partisans’ outspokenness on social networking sites

This study investigates why partisan individuals use social networking sites (SNSs) to speak out for the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage in Taiwan. As expected, the partisan respondents’ strong issue involvement exerted both the direct and indirect effects on their online outspokenness. However, the indirect effects offset the direct effects. On the one hand, strong involvement motivated the partisans to be outspoken online; on the other hand, the partisans’ issue involvement led them to believe that the media swayed others to side with the opposite camp. The perceived media influence led the partisans to withdraw from expressing opinion on SNSs. Their offline participation was affected accordingly.