Political polarization can significantly influence how people interact with others around them in everyday life, leading many to avoid political discussions altogether or confine them to like-minded individuals. Utilizing an original personal network dataset collected in the severely polarized context of Catalonia (Spain) –where a contentious conflict over self-determination exists– this study delves into citizens’ engagement in regular informal political discussions within their social environment. More specifically, we test theoretical expectations regarding three sets of explanatory variables: the political views of respondents (egos) and their interaction partners (alters), the characteristics of ego-alter social relationships, and the perceived strength of social norms of inclusive dialogue, comparing their explanatory power across three topics of varying salience and degree of politicization: general politics, Catalan independence, and climate change. Results of multilevel logistic regression models reveal that unspecified general political discussions are, as expected, hindered by perceived ideological distance while enhanced by emotional closeness, socialization frequency, and alters’ perceived conformity to the inclusive dialogue norm. By contrast, when examining the more contentious topic of Catalonia’s national self-determination, socialization frequency, and normative influence cease to positively affect the likelihood of discussion, while political factors become more relevant.