Public Opinion Quarterly Advance Access originally published online on June 26, 2009
Public Opinion Quarterly 2009 73(3):462-483; doi:10.1093/poq/nfp032
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Measurement of Political Discussion Networks
A Comparison of Two "Name Generator" Procedures
Address correspondence to Casey A. Klofstad; e-mail: klofstad{at}gmail.com.
Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom individuals discuss politics. Some surveys ask respondents to provide information about the people with whom they discuss "important matters," while other studies ask for information specifically on the individual's political discussants. Drawing on three of the most recently collected sources of data on this subject, we compare social network data that have been collected in these two different ways. The majority of our results show that the network data provided by survey respondents are very similar regardless of which network generator procedure is used. These results suggest that we do not consciously select specific individuals with whom to discuss politics. Instead, the individuals with whom we choose to discuss politics are the same people with whom we discuss other important matters in our lives. This finding has significant methodological and substantive implications for studies of social influence.
CASEY A. KLOFSTAD is with the Department of Political Science, University of Miami, 314-G Jenkins Building, Coral Gables, FL 33146-6534, USA. SCOTT D. MCCLURG is with the Department of Political Science, Southern Illinois University, Mailcode 4501, Carbondale, IL 62901-4501, USA. MEREDITH ROLFE is with the Centre for Corporate Reputation, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HP, UK. The authors are listed alphabetically by last name, as they each contributed equally to this research. They wish to thank the anonymous reviewers, participants at the 2006 Midwest Political Science Association National Conference, Scott Blinder, Fred Solt, and Michael Traugott for their helpful comments.