Table 6

Relationships between Value of Sources of Political Information and Public Affairs Knowledge and Political Ideology among the Three Groups of Registered Voters, Including the Effects of Age and Income

Information Source, Demographic, and R²	Loyal Democrats		Loyal Republicans		Undecided
Information Source, Demographic, and R²	Public Affairs Knowledge	Political Ideology	Public Affairs Knowledge	Political Ideology	Public Affairs Knowledge	Political Ideology
Parents or close relatives	0.008	0.035	–0.170^{^*}	0.276^{^***}	–0.155^{^*}	0.256^{^***}
	(0.012)	(0.051)	(–0.080)	(0.241^{^*})	(–0.110)	(0.040)
Close friends or “significant others”	–0.020	–0.028	–0.090	0.086	–0.047	0.222^{^***}
	(0.024)	(–0.045)	(0.108)	(–0.327^{^**})	(0.063)	(0.000)
Other peers or coworkers	–0.091	–0.016	–0.174^{^*}	0.353^{^***}	–0.083	0.261^{^***}
	(–0.223^{^*})	(–0.022)	(–0.193)	(0.200^{^*})	(–0.016)	(–0.031)
Newspapers or magazines	0.070	0.010	–0.128	0.329^{^***}	0.008	0.224^{^***}
	(0.132)	(–0.002)	(–0.042)	(0.010)	(–0.056)	(0.068)
Television or radio programs	0.001	0.034	–0.115	0.213^{^**}	0.029	0.255^{^***}
	(–0.032)	(0.075)	(–0.051)	(0.039)	(0.116)	(0.061)
Social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp)	–0.116	0.087	–0.171^{^*}	0.475^{^***}	–0.107	0.365^{^***}
	(–0.113)	(0.074)	(–0.045)	(0.209)	(–0.016)	(0.206^{^*})
Information shown on the Internet	–0.030	0.095	–0.090	0.408^{^***}	–0.065	0.276^{^***}
	(0.008)	(0.100)	(0.092)	(0.104)	(0.136)	(–0.091)
Formal or informal meetings	0.080	0.007	–0.079	0.342^{^***}	–0.094	0.320^{^***}
	(0.248^{^*})	(–0.035)	(0.019)	(0.142)	(–0.062)	(0.117)
Credibility or likability of politicians	–0.048	–0.065	–0.060	0.129	–0.079	0.220^{^***}
	(–0.091)	(–0.136)	(0.048)	(–0.088)	(–0.059)	(–0.001)
Age	0.108	–0.003	0.222^{^**}	–0.328^{^***}	0.285^{^***}	–0.296^{^***}
	(0.067)	(0.064)	(0.156)	(–0.107)	(0.243^{^**})	(–0.176^{^*})
Income	0.087	–0.064	0.283^{^***}	–0.151	0.247^{^***}	–0.174^{^**}
	(0.061)	(–0.050)	(0.288^{^**})	(0.117)	(0.168^{^**})	(–0.130^{^*})
R²	0.079	0.031	0.162^{^**}	0.355^{^***}	0.132^{^***}	0.194^{^***}

Note: Table entries are Pearson correlations. Standardized regression coefficients, controlling for age and income, are in parentheses. R² values show the strength of influence of (amount of variance explained by) all variables on political knowledge and ideology of each group of potential voters.
↵* p < 0.05;
↵** p < 0.01;
↵*** p < 0.001.