DP17210 Online Political Debates
We study how individuals comment on political news posted on Reddit’s main political forum
during the 2016 US Presidential Election. We present two main findings. First, opposite
partisan users comment on the same news sources, but on different news. Second, partisan
users behave very differently from independents if the news is bad for a candidate. Compared
to independents, partisan comments on bad news are less frequent on the own candidate, and
more frequent on the opponent. The content of the comments also suggests that partisan users
are less likely to accept bad news on their candidate, and more likely on the opponent. This
behavior is consistent with motivated reasoning, and with the predictions of a model of rational
inattention where the cost of attention depends on whether the news is pleasant or unpleasant.
