How feeling free to talk affects ordinary political conversation, purposeful argumentation, and civic participation

Scholars have examined how, specific opinion climates affect political disc ourse, but little attention has been given to how perceived freedom to talk in general is related to congenial political conversation in ordinary spac es or willingness to argue with an opponent-or how each mode of talk affect s civic participation. Respondents in a nationwide survey felt free to talk about politics. Freedom to talk, issue-specific news, and newspapers use m ere most strongly related to ordinary political conversation. With argument ation, issue-specific news, issue-specific news, issue-specific talk, and l ocal opinion climate dominated. Ordinary political conversation was signifi cantly related to conventional participation; argumentation was not.