The Influence of Minority Views on Majority Participation in Online Discourse

Social media content is often dominated by minority views espousing opinionated and politicized content, leading to a skewed representation of public discourse. This raises concerns about its impact on public engagement, as individuals may be discouraged from expressing their own beliefs in such an environment. We investigate this issue by exploring how Republican supporters of childhood vaccines (i.e., those who are in the majority) react when exposed to an online environment dominated by anti-vaccine Republicans (i.e., those who are in the minority). In a survey experiment ( N = 355), we find causal evidence that the majority view holders anticipate social conflict when exposed to a minority view-dominant information environment. Anticipated social conflict is then associated with reduced participation in online discussions. Notably, we find that anticipated social conflict, rather than one’s perception of public opinion, is a primary driver of self-silencing behavior, providing a roadmap for future research on interventions aimed at building people’s resilience to hostile information environments.