How social media creators shape mass politics

Political apathy and skepticism toward traditional authorities are increasingly common, but social media creators (SMCs) capture the public's attention. Despite their prominence, whether these seemingly-frivolous yet engaging actors shape political attitudes and behaviors remains largely unknown. Our field experiment estimates the impact of encouraging Americans aged 18-45 to follow five progressive policy-minded SMCs on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for five months. Participants are randomly assigned to follow SMCs producing predominantly-apolitical and non-partisan or predominantly-political content; we cross-randomize recommendation-only or additional financial incentives to follow assigned SMCs. We then measure participants' political engagement, policy attitudes and priorities, progressive worldviews, voting behavior, non-electoral participation, and institutional and interpersonal trust. The comparison between treatment conditions, and against a pure control and several placebo groups, will evaluate the persuasive potential of sustained exposure to previously-unfollowed SMCs. Our findings will illuminate the role of SMCs as modern-day opinion leaders defining political communication in American democracy.