Public discussion enhances people’s political efficacy, which is also true on social media. While past studies have focused on the effects of the size and frequency of interactions on this relationship, Heise suggested that social network quality may be more important. Therefore, the present study conducted an online survey that measured certain variables, including number of persons interacting, interaction frequency, public discussion involvement, social network evaluation, and internal political efficacy, for 624 social media (WeChat) users. It aimed to determine how these variables affect the generation of internal efficacy. The results revealed that number of persons interacting increases people’s public issue involvement and thus their internal political efficacy; moreover, they indicated that this relationship is mediated by the frequency of interaction and social network evaluation, with the latter having a stronger effect. A more critical factor in whether public discussions on social media enhance people’s internal political efficacy may be who they interact with and with whom they discuss things. This study’s findings demonstrate how affective control is embedded in the relational model of the influence of public discussions in social media on internal political efficacy.
Over the past 15 years, many studies have focused on the impact of social media use on individuals’ political participation, which mainly manifests at the psychological level in terms of its effect on political efficacy, especially internal political efficacy (Coleman et al. 2008; Velasquez and LaRose 2015; Bernardi et al. 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic, which required people to maintain social distance over a long period while relying on social media communication, objectively increased the probability and effect of this influence. Whereas most relevant studies have examined the effects of social media use on political efficacy from the perspectives of information, expression, and instruments (Zhou and Pinkleton 2012; Chan et al. 2019), said effects have been less studied from the perspective of the communication mechanism itself. Therefore, the present study attempted to examine how social media use affects people’s internal political efficacy as well as how the affection control of social networks plays a role in this process. Its examination started from the variables directly related to the interaction process, such as number of persons interacting, interaction issues, and interaction frequency. Habermas’s theory of the public sphere (Habermas 2022) and the theory of affection control (Heise 2016) provided the theoretical basis for the study.
Habermas’s theory of the public sphere implies that the ability to enter public spaces and participate in discussions is a manifestation of people’s political competence (Habermas 2022). Furthermore, Fuchs directly demonstrated that digital public spaces are generated on platforms of various types and that the interaction of interpersonal networks on these platforms has a substantial impact on political efficacy (Fuchs 2021). The size of social networks and the topics of discussion have been crucial factors in relevant studies (Boulianne 2020; Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2021)). Moreover, in recent years, many studies have demonstrated that social media is first and foremost an emotional space. Research on information cocoons, echo chambers, and polarization effects demonstrated that, unlike the traditional model of opinion leaders, emotional contagion and affection control influence the formation of people’s political efficacy through a special type of social network interaction (Ognyanova 2022).
Ultimately, this study attempted to answer the two research questions:
- (1)How do the size of individual interactions and the degree of involvement in public issues on social media affect the generation of an individual’s internal political efficacy?
- (2)How do interaction frequency and the individual’s evaluation of social networks affect these relationships?
Literature review and hypotheses development
Number of persons interacting, public issue involvement, and internal political efficacy
Number of persons online interacting is an important indicator of one’s social influence (Farivar et al. 2021), and it also affects one’s internal political efficacy (Mashud et al. 2023). Many studies have demonstrated that an individual’s online social network (OSN) affects their political participation (Boulianne 2020); thus, the size, composition, and frequency of interactions on social networks are crucial variables to measure. For example, Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2014) revealed that the scale of online interaction directly affects people’s ability to participate in politics. Moreover, Chan et al. (2019) compared the relationship between OSNs and political social networks based on data from six Asian countries and noted its impact on political efficacy. Furthermore, Halpern et al. (2017) compared the differences between Facebook and Twitter in terms of political efficacy enhancement and concluded that Facebook enhances collective efficacy while Twitter enhances internal efficacy. These studies have all indirectly pointed to a relationship in which differences in social network creation and size on social media affect the formation of individuals’ political efficacy. A separate research project conducted by Gil de Zúñiga et al. (2021) revealed that the type of discussion topic affects the generation of political efficacy. Here, the following question arises: Does the scale of individuals’ interactions on social networks affect their probability of entering public issues and thus their generation of internal political efficacy? Accordingly, this study proposed the following hypothesis (H):
H1: Number of persons interacting affects public issue involvement, which in turn affects the internal political efficacy of individuals, while public issue involvement mediates the relationship between number of persons interacting and an individual’s internal political efficacy.
Mediating role of interaction frequency
In the chain of relationships formed by the three variables of number of persons interacting, individual public issue involvement, and internal political efficacy, the frequency of interaction has dynamic characteristics, and studies have examined what happens to it. Valenzuela et al. (2018) concluded that the frequency of social interaction can directly affect an individual’s political participation, while Hyun and Kim (2015) found that said frequency affects people’s access to news topics and related political discussions, which ultimately affects their political participation. Regarding political efficacy, Gibbs et al. (2021) found that students’ participation in budget discussions significantly increased their sense of political efficacy. Similarly, Chan et al. (2012) found that individuals’ intake of information regarding public issues relied on their active participation in relevant issues, under which their sense of political efficacy could be increased. That is, the frequency of interaction is likely to play an active or even mediating role between the scale of individuals’ daily interactions, their involvement in public issues, and their sense of political efficacy. Accordingly, this study proposed the hypothesis:
H2: Interaction frequency mediates the relationship between number of persons interacting, public issue involvement, and internal political efficacy.
Mediating role of social network evaluation
Many studies have indicated that the influence of social media on users’ attitudes and behaviors toward public events is primarily driven through the power of emotions and sentiments (Duncombe 2019; Boler and Davis 2018). This power is even greater than that of the influence of cognitive factors (Han and Xu 2022). Moreover, social media communication relies heavily on the construction of one’s own social network, which can play a critical role in one’s cognitive and affective production. Those who build relationships with more people of higher ability, potential, and dynamism in their social networks are more inclined to have access to all types of public issues and thus increase their political efficacy (Kahne and Bowyer 2018). Weeks et al. (2017) analyzed the influence mechanism of opinion leaders on public attitudes in social media, seeking to answer the question of what types of individuals become influential. Then, the relevant measures of ability, potential, and activation in affection control theory became the basis for further research (Heise 2016). It indicates that these three dimensions can serve as valid indicators for measuring affective control in social networks, and thus we subsequently used the abbreviation EPA for measurement and effect analysis. Accordingly, this study proposed the following hypothesis:
H3: Individuals’ EPA ratings of their own social networks mediate the relationship between number of persons interacting, public issue involvement, and internal political efficacy.
Method
Sample and data collection
This study employed an online questionnaire to collect data on the everyday social media practices of 624 WeChat users in China, carried out through the website (https://www.wjx.cn) in October 2022. WeChat was selected as the primary social media platform due to its status as the most widely used among the Chinese populace. Additionally, its private nature made it a fitting choice for exploring how daily interactions on social networks influence political efficacy. To ensure the integrity of the data, measures were implemented to track IP addresses, devices, and to impose user restrictions, along with employing logical questions to prevent duplicate entries and invalid responses. The survey achieved a commendable valid response rate of 94%, with an average completion time of 522 s. Table 1 presents the final sample’s demographic data: