Self-Effects on Social Media and Political Polarization

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project is to investigate if and how citizens´ expression on social media contributes to political polarization. The project has two main goals. The first is to identify the main polarizing issues discussed on social media during the 2019 European Parliament elections. The second is to understand the structural features of social media platforms that contribute to polarized political discussion.

Expected results and effects

The project expects that the act of political self-expression on social media (e.g., posting or sharing content) is a stronger predictor for having polarizing opinions than reading political information from news outlets or other citizens. It also expects that the reward systems of social media platforms, such as receiving likes and comments, will encourage citizens to share more extreme political content over time. Different network structures across different platforms are further expected to vary these effects.

Planned approach and implementation

The first stage of the project uses digital trace data from Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube to identify the polarizing issues discussed during the European Parliament elections. Once the polarizing issues are mapped, the project then examines whether the users expressing these positions become more active in expressing extreme positions over time. The project tests the strength of correlation between users´ polarized opinion expression and the amount of engagement their posts receive online, as well as their network interactions with other users on the platform.