Citizens’ acceptance of data-driven political campaigning: A 25-country cross-national vignette study
- Author(s)
- Rens Vliegenthart, Jade Vrielink, Kate Dommett, Rachel Gibson , Esmeralda Bon, Xiaotong Chu, Claes de Vreese, Sophie Lecheler, Jörg Matthes, Sophie Minihold, Lukas Otto, Marlis Stubenvoll, Sanne Kruikemeier
- Abstract
This paper investigates how the acceptance of data-driven political campaigning depends on four different message characteristics. A vignette study was conducted in 25 countries with a total of 14,390 respondents who all evaluated multiple descriptions of political advertisements. Relying on multi-level models, we find that in particular the source and the issue of the message matters. Messages that are sent by a party the respondent likes and deal with a political issue the respondent considers important are rated more acceptable. Furthermore, targeting based on general characteristics instead of individual ones is considered more acceptable, as is a general call to participate in the upcoming elections instead of a specific call to vote for a certain party. Effects differ across regulatory contexts, with the negative impact of both individual targeting and a specific call to vote for a certain party being in countries that have higher levels of legislative regulation.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- University of Sheffield, University of Manchester, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Wageningen University and Research Centre, University of Amsterdam (UvA), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Journal
- Social Science Computer Review
- Volume
- 42
- Pages
- 1101-1119
- No. of pages
- 19
- ISSN
- 0894-4393
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393241249708
- Publication date
- 04-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences, Library and Information Sciences, Law, Computer Science Applications
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/312d1d36-e858-4149-9a8e-a3f17f2fe8a7