Resumen de Contexts, networks, and voting behavior: the social flow of political communication in Italy

Moreno Mancosu

• Previous research demonstrated that different contextual sources can affect voting behavior. Homogeneous familiar networks affect individual behavior of people embedded in these networks toward voting for certain parties. Moreover, being exposed to higher levels of homogeneity in the geographical place where one lives contributes to developing higher propensities to vote for a certain political object. By means of 2006 National Italian Elections data (and by employing new measures of network political homogeneity), this paper tests, with multilevel models, the hypothesis according to which networks and geographical context interact while affecting individuals’ voting behavior. Results confirm such a hypothesis, showing that familiar networks represent a ‘social bubble’, which limits the likelihood of being affected by the broader context.