Linking citizens' anti-immigration attitudes to their digital user engagement and voting behavior

Author(s)
Hajo Boomgaarden, David De Coninck, Anne Marie (Annabel) Buiter, Leen d'Haenens
Abstract

Societally salient issues, like migration, stimulate user engagement with political parties on social media. This user engagement, in turn, is associated with political behavior, such as voting. Nonetheless, few studies so far have investigated the interaction between these factors. We examine how anti-immigration attitudes are associated with user engagement with political parties on social media. In this study, user engagement is understood as following political parties on social media. Through online data that were collected in October 2019 among adults (N= 1,000) in Belgium, we investigate how attitudes and user engagement are associated with voting behavior. Results suggest that attitudes towards migration are associated with user engagement with both left and right-wing parties on social media. Moreover, these attitudes and user engagement – and the interaction between the two – are related to voting behavior: being against (being in favor of) migration and following right-wing (left-wing) parties on social media is associated with a higher likelihood of voting for a right-wing (left-wing) party.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Radboud University
Journal
Communications: the European journal of communication research
Volume
48
Pages
292-314
No. of pages
23
ISSN
0341-2059
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2021-0071
Publication date
04-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508008 Media analysis
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/linking-citizens-antiimmigration-attitudes-to-their-digital-user-engagement-and-voting-behavior(fce3ad6c-b3d4-4551-b30b-e553208426df).html