Seeing political information online incidentally. Effects of first- and second-level incidental exposure on democratic outcomes

Today, the internet and particularly social media offer lots of opportunities to encounter political information incidentally. Motivated by conflicting findings regarding the effects of incidental exposure (IE) on political outcomes, researchers recently developed new theoretical models. Building on the Political Incidental News Exposure (PINE) model, we distinguish two levels of IE to political information, first-level (i.e., mere scanning of IE content) and second-level (i.e., effortful processing of IE content). In one cross-sectional (N ₁ = 1660) and three panel surveys (N ₂ = 450, N ₃ = 524, N ₄ = 901), we measure the two levels of IE and investigate their effect on multiple political outcomes. We find null effects on political knowledge for both levels. However, across all three panel studies, second-level IE affects online political participation positively. In Study 4, we find that second-level IE also affects social media use for political information and political expression positively. Implications are discussed.