D S Lane
Biographic Data
| ID | 67805 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D S Lane |
| GIVEN NAMES | D S |
| FAMILY NAME | Lane |
| SIGNATURE | LANE D S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7404-1890 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 173 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Political Identity Threats on Social Media
One appealing explanation for the dismal state of digital politics in the U.S. is that social media offer abundant threats to users’ political identities. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for studying political identity threats on social media. A pilot study ( N = 931) established that individuals can recognize both realistic and symbolic threats when they explicitly appear in TikTok videos, but that, (a) threat types ar…
An “Identity Turn” in political communication?: Testing the relationship between media use and identity alignment in the United States
Despite a rise in identity-centric communication scholarship, there is a lack of theory and evidence regarding how media use relates to the on-going alignment between political and social identities (i.e., identity alignment). We offer a framework for theorizing this dynamic and apply it to examine the relationship between Americans’ media diets and on-going psychological alignment between political and social identities in the United States (i.e…
News “Attraction” and Digital Inequalities: Incidental News Exposure and the Equalization or Stratification of Political Information
Understanding the impact of digital media on news inequalities is critical for democracy. The literature on incidental exposure challenges the idea that major platforms shrink information gaps, and research has turned to the identification of variables that explain how those gaps widen or persist. We use Latent Class Analysis to operationalize the metaphor of “attracting the news” and investigate incidental exposure as both an individual trait an…
A Longitudinal Test of Political Self-Effects on Social Media
This registered report details a longitudinal experiment testing political self-effects – changes in issue-related attitudes and indicators of political self-concept – resulting from political expression on social media. We also tested whether such effects were due to the composition or release of political messages on social media over time. American adults (N = 576), logged on to a fictional social media platform and engaged with discussions in…
Me Against Myself: How Right-Partisan Media Use Predicts Support for Redistribution Across Class and Partisan Identities
Despite rising economic inequality in the United States, lower-class Americans have yet to demand economic redistribution in overwhelming numbers. Analysis of the 2020 American National Election Study finds that right-partisan media use is associated with lower support for redistributive policies, and this relationship is strongest among individuals who identify as lower-class or Independent. We also found the relationship between right-partisan …
To express or not express: A motivational approach to studying political expression on social media
The Group Roots of Social Media Politics: Social Sorting Predicts Perceptions of and Engagement in Politics on Social Media
Research on political partisans suggests that social media offer ideal playing fields for the group game of politics. This study considers how political and social identities interact to influence political communication on social media. Using an original two-wave survey of Americans fielded during the 2020 election period, we analyzed how social media users’ levels of social sorting—the alignment between racial, religious, ideological, and polit…
Uninterested and unequal: Examining SES-based gaps in youth political behavior on social media
Despite evidence that social media are transforming American political life, fundamental questions remain about their influence on political inequality among the next generation of citizens. This study examines whether youth political behavior on social media is stratified by socioeconomic status (SES) and if political interest is the primary mechanism. Analyzing two nationally representative surveys of young Americans (18–34), we find youth poli…
Worn Out & Tuned Out: Does Politics Fatigue on Social Media Foster Participatory Inequality Among Americans
In this paper, we take seriously evidence of growing politics fatigue on social media among Americans and consider how this fatigue might ultimately foster participatory inequalities on these platforms. We test two theoretical accounts of how social media (SM) politics fatigue is produced among those who (a) are disinterested in politics altogether (interest-based fatigue) or (b) hold strong political identities (identity-based fatigue). Analyses…
The story of social media: Evolving news coverage of social media in American politics, 2006–2021
This article examines how American news media have framed social media as political technologies over time. To do so, we analyzed 16 years of political news stories focusing on social media, published by American newspapers (N = 8,218) and broadcasters (N = 6,064) (2006–2021). Using automated content analysis, we found that coverage of social media in political news stories: (a) increasingly uses anxious, angry, and moral language, (b) is consist…
Making the impossible possible? Framing confrontations of racism on social media as norm-setting
Although confronting racist speech online can reduce future discriminatory behavior, people may be reluctant to confront because they perceive that it will be ineffective in changing racist attitudes. We test one theoretically grounded strategy for increasing white social media users’ willingness to confront online racism: reframing the confrontation goal from attitude change to norm-setting. We examine whether re-framing the confrontation goal i…
Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication: Special Issue Introduction
Despite the centrality of race and ethnicity in social and political life, they are often absent from studies of the urgent questions in contemporary political communication research. In this essay introducing a special issue focused on "Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication," we examine factors that may contribute to the relative absence of race/ethnicity in the political communication scholarship, including: 1) st…
Effects of pro-white identity cues in American political candidate communication
American politicians have always harnessed the group nature of politics to build political power. Yet it is unclear whether explicit appeals to dominant group identities (e.g., white identity) can help political leaders win support from dominant group members (e.g., white Americans). Four experimental studies (N = 2,279; two pre-registered) used the identity ownership perspective (Kreiss et al., 2020) to examine how a fictional candidates' suppor…
What is political expression on social media anyway: A systematic review
A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use
Testing Inequality and Identity Accounts of Racial Gaps in Political Expression on Social Media
Do social media simply reproduce political inequality between racial groups or are they powerful tools for marginalized racial groups to contest the status quo? This study examined resource-based and identity-based theoretical explanations for differences between White people and racial/ethnic minorities in political expression on social media. Across 4 nationally representative surveys collected in the United States (2016 & 2018), we found that …
The Impact of Social Endorsement Cues and Manipulability Concerns on Perceptions of News Credibility
Social endorsement cues (SEC) offer information about how online users have engaged and evaluated online content. Some view that SEC thus can serve as useful heuristics when users evaluate the credibility of news content on social media. At the same time, SEC can be manipulated by a variety of commercial and political actors on social media. This study examines whether SEC influence individuals' credibility judgments of political news on social m…
Online Incidental Exposure to News Can Minimize Interest-Based Political Knowledge Gaps: Evidence from Two U.S. Elections
Concerns persist over the potential for the fragmented media environment to promote motivation-based political knowledge gaps between those who are interested in politics and those who are not. Yet, there is also evidence that the Internet can provide opportunities for individuals to incidentally encounter and learn from news, which may decrease these knowledge gaps. The current study tests this possibility using two, two-wave panel surveys of ad…
Sharing and Commenting Facilitate Political Learning on Facebook: Evidence From a Two-Wave Panel Study
Social media, as sources of political news and sites of political discussion, may be novel environments for political learning. Many early reports, however, failed to find that social media use promotes gains in political knowledge. Prior research has not yet fully explored the possibility based on the communication mediation model that exposure to political information on social media facilitates political expression, which may subsequently enco…
Now We’re Talking? Understanding the Interplay Between Online Selective and Incidental Exposure and Their Influence on Online Cross-Cutting Political Discussion
This study examines how two distinct patterns of online political information exposure—pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure—can work together to influence engagement in online cross-cutting political discussion. Using panel data from a two-wave national survey conducted in 2012, we test two competing theoretical accounts. Findings suggest that incidental exposure affects selective exposure’s contribution …
The ecology of incidental exposure to news in digital media environments
The profusion of information about current events in digital media makes it likely that individuals are exposed to news through the course of everyday life, even when they are not motivated to do so. Yet, such incidental news exposure and its consequences depend on a multitude of characteristics that are unique to individuals and the social and information environments they inhabit. This complexity makes it difficult to evaluate the broader democ…
In Search of the Expressive Citizen
Scholars have often used generational changes in citizenship norms to theorize new forms of youth political expression on social media. Public opinion data has been employed to demonstrate that young people’s perceptions of what it means to be a “good citizen” (i.e., injunctive citizenship norms) have shifted toward models of citizenship that value self-expression. Yet several fundamental assumptions of this dominant image of the young “expressiv…
When Social Media Get Political: How Perceptions of Open-Mindedness Influence Political Expression on Facebook
The use of social media for developing and maintaining relationships can offer a gateway for users to open up and express their political views. Building on previous literature on the 'spillover effect' in which relational use of social media motivates political expression, this study examines the circumstances under which the 'spillover' effect is more likely to occur. To do so, we measured respondents' (a) dialogic openness and (b) perception o…
Civic laboratories: Youth political expression in anonymous, ephemeral, geo-bounded social media
While political expression is theoretically important for young citizens, research finds that young people approach expression on dominant social media (e.g., Facebook) with trepidation and uncertainty. What might a social media that facilitates youth political expression look like? We address this question by examining young people’s experiences with the mobile social media Yik Yak, whose affordances (i.e., anonymity, geo-boundedness, ephemerali…
Social media design for youth political expression: Testing the roles of identifiability and geo-boundedness
Previous research has examined how political expression on social media can affect young people’s engagement in political life. Yet a focus on dominant platforms (i.e. Facebook) and a lack of experimental studies have impeded theoretical understanding of how different features and affordances shape youth political expression. This study used a novel experimental paradigm to test how the design of social media sites can influence young people’s po…
Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political inform…
Perceptions of Social Media for Politics: Testing the Slacktivism Hypothesis
Americans' views of political activity on social media range from exuberant to exasperated. But do perceptions of social media actually influence citizens' online and offline political behaviors as suggested by the so-called "Slacktivism hypothesis?" In the present study, we undertake a more careful examination of this question by testing a theoretical model in which perceiving participation on social media as an easy or impactful means of engagi…
The ecology of incidental exposure to news in digital media environments
The profusion of information about current events in digital media makes it likely that individuals are exposed to news through the course of everyday life, even when they are not motivated to do so. Yet, such incidental news exposure and its consequences depend on a multitude of characteristics that are unique to individuals and the social and information environments they inhabit. This complexity makes it difficult to evaluate the broader democ…
Testing Inequality and Identity Accounts of Racial Gaps in Political Expression on Social Media
Do social media simply reproduce political inequality between racial groups or are they powerful tools for marginalized racial groups to contest the status quo? This study examined resource-based and identity-based theoretical explanations for differences between White people and racial/ethnic minorities in political expression on social media. Across 4 nationally representative surveys collected in the United States (2016 & 2018), we found that …
Solidarity Effects in Social Movement Messaging: How Cueing Dominant Group Identity Can Increase Movement Support
Despite the historical importance of dominant group solidarity with movements for social justice, little empirical work has examined how the social identity of movement supporters influences the persuasiveness of their social movement messages. Across two experiments, we manipulated the group identity (White, Black, or anonymous) of a speaker in a message supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement to examine its effects on White Americans' percept…
In Search of the Expressive Citizen
Scholars have often used generational changes in citizenship norms to theorize new forms of youth political expression on social media. Public opinion data has been employed to demonstrate that young people’s perceptions of what it means to be a “good citizen” (i.e., injunctive citizenship norms) have shifted toward models of citizenship that value self-expression. Yet several fundamental assumptions of this dominant image of the young “expressiv…
Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication: Special Issue Introduction
Despite the centrality of race and ethnicity in social and political life, they are often absent from studies of the urgent questions in contemporary political communication research. In this essay introducing a special issue focused on "Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication," we examine factors that may contribute to the relative absence of race/ethnicity in the political communication scholarship, including: 1) st…
Online Incidental Exposure to News Can Minimize Interest-Based Political Knowledge Gaps: Evidence from Two U.S. Elections
Concerns persist over the potential for the fragmented media environment to promote motivation-based political knowledge gaps between those who are interested in politics and those who are not. Yet, there is also evidence that the Internet can provide opportunities for individuals to incidentally encounter and learn from news, which may decrease these knowledge gaps. The current study tests this possibility using two, two-wave panel surveys of ad…
Now We’re Talking? Understanding the Interplay Between Online Selective and Incidental Exposure and Their Influence on Online Cross-Cutting Political Discussion
This study examines how two distinct patterns of online political information exposure—pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure—can work together to influence engagement in online cross-cutting political discussion. Using panel data from a two-wave national survey conducted in 2012, we test two competing theoretical accounts. Findings suggest that incidental exposure affects selective exposure’s contribution …
From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation
Amid growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political discussion to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how users' motivations for using social media might influence such dynamics. In this study, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in the Unite…
Worn Out & Tuned Out: Does Politics Fatigue on Social Media Foster Participatory Inequality Among Americans
In this paper, we take seriously evidence of growing politics fatigue on social media among Americans and consider how this fatigue might ultimately foster participatory inequalities on these platforms. We test two theoretical accounts of how social media (SM) politics fatigue is produced among those who (a) are disinterested in politics altogether (interest-based fatigue) or (b) hold strong political identities (identity-based fatigue). Analyses…
Effects of pro-white identity cues in American political candidate communication
American politicians have always harnessed the group nature of politics to build political power. Yet it is unclear whether explicit appeals to dominant group identities (e.g., white identity) can help political leaders win support from dominant group members (e.g., white Americans). Four experimental studies (N = 2,279; two pre-registered) used the identity ownership perspective (Kreiss et al., 2020) to examine how a fictional candidates' suppor…
A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use
The story of social media: Evolving news coverage of social media in American politics, 2006–2021
This article examines how American news media have framed social media as political technologies over time. To do so, we analyzed 16 years of political news stories focusing on social media, published by American newspapers (N = 8,218) and broadcasters (N = 6,064) (2006–2021). Using automated content analysis, we found that coverage of social media in political news stories: (a) increasingly uses anxious, angry, and moral language, (b) is consist…
Social media design for youth political expression: Testing the roles of identifiability and geo-boundedness
Previous research has examined how political expression on social media can affect young people’s engagement in political life. Yet a focus on dominant platforms (i.e. Facebook) and a lack of experimental studies have impeded theoretical understanding of how different features and affordances shape youth political expression. This study used a novel experimental paradigm to test how the design of social media sites can influence young people’s po…
Use of the hospital emergency room in relation to use of private physicians
Use of the hospital emergency room in relation to use of private physicians. H R Kelman, and D S LaneCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.66.12.1189 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Use of the hospital emergency room in relation to use of private physicians
Use of the hospital emergency room in relation to use of private physicians. H R Kelman, and D S LaneCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.66.12.1189 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Giving the Underdog a Leg Up: A Counternarrative of Nonviolent Resistance Improves Sustained Third-Party Support of a Disempowered Group
In the current work, we experimentally examined the effect of exposure to a narrative of nonviolent resistance on third-party attitudes toward and support for a disempowered group involved in asymmetric conflict. Across three experiments, we found that Americans exposed to a brief video about Palestinian nonviolent resistance consistently registered more favorable attitudes toward Palestinians than people who watched a film trailer either unrelat…
Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political inform…
From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation
Amid growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political discussion to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how users' motivations for using social media might influence such dynamics. In this study, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in the Unite…
Sharing beyond Slacktivism: The effect of socially observable prosocial media sharing on subsequent offline helping behavior
New forms of youth social and political participation have been termed ‘Slacktivism’ – low-cost online forms of social engagement that decrease subsequent offline participation. Previous experimental work has provided support for a ‘Slacktivism effect,’ but it is unclear if this theoretical model applies to youth media sharing on social networking sites. This study uses a novel sharing simulation paradigm to test the effect of publicly vs. anonym…
In consensus we trust? Persuasive effects of scientific consensus communication
Scholars have recently suggested that communicating levels of scientific consensus (e.g. the percentage of scientists who agree about human-caused climate change) can shift public opinion toward the dominant scientific opinion. Initial research suggested that consensus communication effectively reduces public skepticism. However, other research failed to find a persuasive effect for those with conflicting prior beliefs. This study enters this con…
Perceptions of Social Media for Politics: Testing the Slacktivism Hypothesis
Americans' views of political activity on social media range from exuberant to exasperated. But do perceptions of social media actually influence citizens' online and offline political behaviors as suggested by the so-called "Slacktivism hypothesis?" In the present study, we undertake a more careful examination of this question by testing a theoretical model in which perceiving participation on social media as an easy or impactful means of engagi…
Civic laboratories: Youth political expression in anonymous, ephemeral, geo-bounded social media
While political expression is theoretically important for young citizens, research finds that young people approach expression on dominant social media (e.g., Facebook) with trepidation and uncertainty. What might a social media that facilitates youth political expression look like? We address this question by examining young people’s experiences with the mobile social media Yik Yak, whose affordances (i.e., anonymity, geo-boundedness, ephemerali…
Social media design for youth political expression: Testing the roles of identifiability and geo-boundedness
Previous research has examined how political expression on social media can affect young people’s engagement in political life. Yet a focus on dominant platforms (i.e. Facebook) and a lack of experimental studies have impeded theoretical understanding of how different features and affordances shape youth political expression. This study used a novel experimental paradigm to test how the design of social media sites can influence young people’s po…
Solidarity Effects in Social Movement Messaging: How Cueing Dominant Group Identity Can Increase Movement Support
Despite the historical importance of dominant group solidarity with movements for social justice, little empirical work has examined how the social identity of movement supporters influences the persuasiveness of their social movement messages. Across two experiments, we manipulated the group identity (White, Black, or anonymous) of a speaker in a message supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement to examine its effects on White Americans' percept…
Now We’re Talking? Understanding the Interplay Between Online Selective and Incidental Exposure and Their Influence on Online Cross-Cutting Political Discussion
This study examines how two distinct patterns of online political information exposure—pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure—can work together to influence engagement in online cross-cutting political discussion. Using panel data from a two-wave national survey conducted in 2012, we test two competing theoretical accounts. Findings suggest that incidental exposure affects selective exposure’s contribution …
The ecology of incidental exposure to news in digital media environments
The profusion of information about current events in digital media makes it likely that individuals are exposed to news through the course of everyday life, even when they are not motivated to do so. Yet, such incidental news exposure and its consequences depend on a multitude of characteristics that are unique to individuals and the social and information environments they inhabit. This complexity makes it difficult to evaluate the broader democ…
In Search of the Expressive Citizen
Scholars have often used generational changes in citizenship norms to theorize new forms of youth political expression on social media. Public opinion data has been employed to demonstrate that young people’s perceptions of what it means to be a “good citizen” (i.e., injunctive citizenship norms) have shifted toward models of citizenship that value self-expression. Yet several fundamental assumptions of this dominant image of the young “expressiv…
When Social Media Get Political: How Perceptions of Open-Mindedness Influence Political Expression on Facebook
The use of social media for developing and maintaining relationships can offer a gateway for users to open up and express their political views. Building on previous literature on the 'spillover effect' in which relational use of social media motivates political expression, this study examines the circumstances under which the 'spillover' effect is more likely to occur. To do so, we measured respondents' (a) dialogic openness and (b) perception o…
The Impact of Social Endorsement Cues and Manipulability Concerns on Perceptions of News Credibility
Social endorsement cues (SEC) offer information about how online users have engaged and evaluated online content. Some view that SEC thus can serve as useful heuristics when users evaluate the credibility of news content on social media. At the same time, SEC can be manipulated by a variety of commercial and political actors on social media. This study examines whether SEC influence individuals' credibility judgments of political news on social m…
Online Incidental Exposure to News Can Minimize Interest-Based Political Knowledge Gaps: Evidence from Two U.S. Elections
Concerns persist over the potential for the fragmented media environment to promote motivation-based political knowledge gaps between those who are interested in politics and those who are not. Yet, there is also evidence that the Internet can provide opportunities for individuals to incidentally encounter and learn from news, which may decrease these knowledge gaps. The current study tests this possibility using two, two-wave panel surveys of ad…
Sharing and Commenting Facilitate Political Learning on Facebook: Evidence From a Two-Wave Panel Study
Social media, as sources of political news and sites of political discussion, may be novel environments for political learning. Many early reports, however, failed to find that social media use promotes gains in political knowledge. Prior research has not yet fully explored the possibility based on the communication mediation model that exposure to political information on social media facilitates political expression, which may subsequently enco…
What is political expression on social media anyway: A systematic review
A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use
Testing Inequality and Identity Accounts of Racial Gaps in Political Expression on Social Media
Do social media simply reproduce political inequality between racial groups or are they powerful tools for marginalized racial groups to contest the status quo? This study examined resource-based and identity-based theoretical explanations for differences between White people and racial/ethnic minorities in political expression on social media. Across 4 nationally representative surveys collected in the United States (2016 & 2018), we found that …
The Group Roots of Social Media Politics: Social Sorting Predicts Perceptions of and Engagement in Politics on Social Media
Research on political partisans suggests that social media offer ideal playing fields for the group game of politics. This study considers how political and social identities interact to influence political communication on social media. Using an original two-wave survey of Americans fielded during the 2020 election period, we analyzed how social media users’ levels of social sorting—the alignment between racial, religious, ideological, and polit…
Uninterested and unequal: Examining SES-based gaps in youth political behavior on social media
Despite evidence that social media are transforming American political life, fundamental questions remain about their influence on political inequality among the next generation of citizens. This study examines whether youth political behavior on social media is stratified by socioeconomic status (SES) and if political interest is the primary mechanism. Analyzing two nationally representative surveys of young Americans (18–34), we find youth poli…
Worn Out & Tuned Out: Does Politics Fatigue on Social Media Foster Participatory Inequality Among Americans
In this paper, we take seriously evidence of growing politics fatigue on social media among Americans and consider how this fatigue might ultimately foster participatory inequalities on these platforms. We test two theoretical accounts of how social media (SM) politics fatigue is produced among those who (a) are disinterested in politics altogether (interest-based fatigue) or (b) hold strong political identities (identity-based fatigue). Analyses…
The story of social media: Evolving news coverage of social media in American politics, 2006–2021
This article examines how American news media have framed social media as political technologies over time. To do so, we analyzed 16 years of political news stories focusing on social media, published by American newspapers (N = 8,218) and broadcasters (N = 6,064) (2006–2021). Using automated content analysis, we found that coverage of social media in political news stories: (a) increasingly uses anxious, angry, and moral language, (b) is consist…
Making the impossible possible? Framing confrontations of racism on social media as norm-setting
Although confronting racist speech online can reduce future discriminatory behavior, people may be reluctant to confront because they perceive that it will be ineffective in changing racist attitudes. We test one theoretically grounded strategy for increasing white social media users’ willingness to confront online racism: reframing the confrontation goal from attitude change to norm-setting. We examine whether re-framing the confrontation goal i…
Political science (29 works) · Politics (28 works) · Social Media and Politics (28 works) · Psychology (26 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Social media (18 works) · Law (15 works) · Political communication (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works)