What Goes Without Saying
Navigating Political Discussion in America

This book examines how the psychosocial motivations underpinning political discussion present dire challenges to meaningful political conversations across lines of difference.

Taylor N. Carlson (Author), Jaime E. Settle (Author)

9781108831864, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 June 2022

300 pages
23.6 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

'Carlson and Settle provide the most comprehensive framework for understanding political discussion. Their framework integrates insights from neuroscience, network science, and many other disciplines. They show the value of this framework using innovative survey research paired with biometric feedback and creative experimental designs.' Matthew T. Pietryka, Florida State University, co-author of Examining Motivations in Interpersonal Communication Experiments

Why are political conversations uncomfortable for so many people? The current literature focuses on the structure of people's discussion networks and the frequency with which they talk about politics, but not the dynamics of the conversations themselves. In What Goes Without Saying, Taylor N. Carlson and Jaime E. Settle investigate how Americans navigate these discussions in their daily lives, with particular attention to the decision-making process around when and how to broach politics. The authors use a multi-methods approach to unpack what they call the 4D Framework of political conversation: identifying the ways that people detect others' views, decide whether to talk, discuss their opinions honestly—or not, and determine whether they will repeat the experience in the future. In developing a framework for studying and explaining political discussion as a social process, What Goes Without Saying will set the agenda for research in political science, psychology, communication, and sociology for decades to come.

1. Opening the black box of political discussion
2. The 4d framework of political discussion
3. Data collection
4. Detection: Mapping the political landscape (stage 1)
5. Decision: To talk or not to talk? (stage 2)
6. Discussion: The psychophysiological experience of political discussion (stage 3)
7. [further] discussion: Expression in political discussion (stage 3)
8. Determination: When discussion divides us (stage 4)
9. Individual dispositions and the 4d framework
10. The costs of conversation
Index.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Social interaction [JFFP], Communication studies [GTC]