POLITICAL TALK AND THE STABILITY AND CONSISTENCY OF POLITICAL ORIENTATION

This paper investigates the relationship between talk and political or ientation. Two indices of talk are considered: frequency (the extent t o which a person talks politics) and discussant homogeneity (whether t he person(s) with whom they talk politics support the same party as th ey do). Two aspects of political orientation are examined: party ident ification (viz. the party to which the person feels closest) and polit ical altitudes (along the left-right and libertarian-authoritarian dim ensions). It is hypothesized that the frequency of political talk will be related to the stability and consistency of a person's political a ttitudes and to the stability of their party identification. It is als o expected that discussant homogeneity will be related to the stabilit y of party identification and to the stability of political attitudes. The data were drawn from a panel study which used a stratified nation al sample of over 200 respondents interviewed in 1985 and 1986. The re sults show that frequency of talk is closely related to the consistenc y of political attitudes; and also related to the stability of politic al orientation. Discussant homogeneity is clearly related to the stabi lity of party identification but not to attitudinal stability. The res ults offer general support for the ideas presented which emphasized th e importance of talk as a way of expressing a person's political ident ity and the interpersonal processes involved in its maintenance.