Beyond taking an interest in politics, we might think of discussing it as the next step in political engagement. Indeed, we could reasonably go as far as to describe discussing politics as a political act, given that it involves interacting with others and can often have an element of trying to persuade them of something. However, the survey specifically and separately measured how frequently people urge others to take political action so, for now at least, we will treat political discussion as an element of political engagement rather than political participation.
Respondents were asked how often they discuss national and local politics, and their answers are presented in Figure 1 (above, using weighted data).[1] Starting with national politics (panel A), more than half of people (55.9%) say that they discuss it at least once a week whilst four fifths (81.1%) do so at least once a month, meaning that one fifth (18.9%) discuss national politics a few times a year or less. By contrast two fifths of people (39.4%) discuss local politics (panel B) a few times a year or less, three fifths (60.6%) do so at least once a month, and less than a third (29.4%) do so at least once a week. Clearly, then, people discuss national politics more frequently than local politics, though the latter is also discussed with at least moderate frequency by a clear majority of people.
Widespread discussion of politics, however, does not necessarily imply ease with the subject. As such, the survey also asked how confident people feel about discussing politics with people who they know well and people who they do not know well. The answers to these questions are presented in Figure 2 (below, also using weighted data) and show that people are generally confident discussing politics with people who they know well (panel A).[2] In relation to such discussions, approaching three fifths of people (57.8%) say that they are confident (36.4%, a plurality) or very confident (21.4%), and just under nine in ten (89.8%) are at least fairly confident. The picture changes somewhat for discussion of politics with people are not known well, and almost three in ten people (29.6%) say that they are not very confident (21.1%) or not at all confident (8.5%) doing so. A similar proportion (31.7%) say that they are confident (25.6%) or very confident (6.1%) doing so, but the single largest group is those who are fairly confident (38.6%, almost two fifths). Unsurprisingly, then, people are notably more confident discussing politics with people who they know well than with people who they do not know well, although levels of confidence are at least moderate in relation to both groups.
The high frequency of discussing politics, and of confidence in doing so may, again, reflect the fact that online samples of voluntary respondents, even if chosen to be representative, are likely to have higher levels of political engagement than the population at large. Nevertheless, discussion of politics, as with interest in the topic, is not a niche activity, and people are generally comfortable discussing the topic with people who they know well. It will be interesting to see, however, what other factors relate to both the frequency of, and confidence in, discussing politics.
| Variable names | poli_realcomfdiscwell, poli_hypcomfdiscwell, poli_hypcomfdiscnotwell |
| Number of cases | 1,405 |
| Number of categories | 6 |
| Categories to code as missing | 9 (‘Not asked’) |
| Cases to code as missing | 59-84 |
| Recoded variable name | pe_disw_cirmv, pe_dinw_irmv |
| Number of cases | 1,321-1,346 |
| Number of categories | 5 |
| New and old categories | The question about confidence in discussing politics with people who are known well was asked with a hypothetical wording, rather than asking about their actual experiences, to respondents who indicated that they discussed both national and local politics ‘A couple of times a year or less’ (7). People who indicated that they ‘Never’ (8) discuss national and local politics were not asked about how confident they feel, or would feel, discussing it with people who they know well. People who ‘Never’ (8) discuss national and local politics were also not asked about how confident they would feel discussing it with people who they do not know well. However, there was a mistake in the logic of the survey coding such that more people were not asked about their confidence in discussing politics with people who they know well (either really or hypothetically). As such, 59 people did not answer the question in relation to people who are not known well, but 84 did not answer the question in relation to people who are known well (whether real or hypothetical). The data from the real and hypothetical questions on discussion with people who are known well were combined and the scales were inverted (by deducting the answers from 5). The scale inversion was also applied to the question about discussion with people who are not known well (as well as to the questions about frequency of discussion). As such, the confidence in discussion of politics questions run from 0 (‘Not at all confident’) to 4 (‘Very confident’), rather than from 1 (‘Very confident’) to 5 (‘Not at all confident’) as is the case with the original variables. The respondents who did not see the confidence questions were coded as missing. |
Privilege and Participation 