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Field
Trial Title
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Before
How Social Media Influencers Shape the Politics of Young Adults
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After
How social media creators shape mass politics
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Field
Trial Status
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Before
in_development
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After
on_going
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Field
Abstract
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Before
If the future of democracy and the policies it produces depend on younger generations, whether and how they encounter news and politics is of paramount importance. While political apathy and skepticism of traditional authorities are prevalent among young adults, social media influencers (SMIs) can and do capture their attention. Whether these seemingly-frivolous yet engaging and trusted actors have enduring effects on the policy and political values, substantive and affective attitudes, and behaviors is an important open question. We propose an online field experiment to investigate the impact of encouraging young people to expose themselves to five months of progressive narrative change messages from SMIs on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube as part of the Better Internet Initiative's fellows program. To further understand the incentives for SMIs to serve as political educators, we will further explore the consequences of ``going political'' on an SMI's subsequent audience engagement.
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After
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.
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Field
Last Published
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Before
November 05, 2024 01:36 PM
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After
January 07, 2025 12:49 PM
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
December 31, 2024
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After
December 29, 2024
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Media consumption and engagement; policy and political attitudes; worldviews and political polarization; voting behavior.
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After
Media consumption and engagement; political knowledge and engagement; policy and political attitudes; progressive worldviews and political polarization; voting behavior; non-electoral political participation; trust.
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
The treatment and incentive conditions will be cross-randomized to generate the distribution of participants. Treatments will be randomized within blocks of participants who are similar in terms of pre-treatment observables.
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After
The treatment and incentive conditions will be cross-randomized to generate the distribution of participants. Treatments will be (dynamically) randomized within blocks of participants who are similar in terms of pre-treatment observables.
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
TBD.
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After
4,716 participants were assigned a treatment condition, of which 4,566 completed the baseline survey. The sample size by treatment arm is shown in the pre-analysis plan.
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
Our core treatment conditions involve encouraging participants to follow: (i) political BII fellows on social media; (ii) apolitical BII fellows on social media; (iii) political non-BII fellows on social media; (iv) apolitical non-BII fellows on social media; and (iv) BII messaging sent off social media. Within these conditions, we will further randomize the form of encouragement: (a) recommendation and quiz incentives; (b) recommendation and follow/subscribe incentives; and (c) recommendation only. There will also be a pure control condition.
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After
Our core treatment conditions involve encouraging participants to follow: (i) predominantly political SMCs (a mix of BII fellows and progressive-leaning SMCs) on social media; (ii) predominantly apolitical SMCs (all BII fellows) on social media; (iii) non-political SMCs on social media; and (iv) BII fellow's core messaging sent via SMS/email off social media. Within these conditions, we will further randomize the form of encouragement: (a) recommendation and quiz incentives; (b) recommendation and follow/subscribe incentives; and (c) recommendation only. In addition to the placebo control conditions, there will also be a pure control condition.
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