Can ❤s Change Minds? Social Media Endorsements and Policy Preferences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2414593 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pierluigi Conzo (0000-0002-5125-0646, Collegio Carlo Alberto), Laura K Taylor (0000-0002-2353-2398, University College Dublin), Jordi Suñé Morales (0000-0002-7397-6843, Wilfrid Laurier University, corresponding author), Juan S Morales, Margaret Samahita (0000-0002-8693-1185, University College Dublin), Andrea Gallice (0000-0003-0250-9508, Collegio Carlo Alberto) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Media + Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/20563051231177899 |
| OpenAlex | W3132017097 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 71 |
We investigate the effect of social media endorsements (likes, retweets, shares) on individuals' policy preferences. In two pre-registered online experiments ( N = 1,384), we exposed participants to non-neutral policy messages about the COVID-19 pandemic (emphasizing either public health or economic activity as a policy priority) while varying the level of endorsements of these messages. Our experimental treatment did not result in aggregate changes to policy views. However, our analysis indicates that active social media users did respond to the variation in engagement metrics. In particular, we find a strong positive treatment effect concentrated on a minority of individuals who correctly answered a factual manipulation check regarding the endorsements. Our results suggest that though only a fraction of individuals appear to pay conscious attention to endorsement metrics, they may be influenced by these social cues
Advertising · Business · Pandemic · Political science · Public policy · Public relations · Social media · Law · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |