UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If Thanksgiving dinner conversations have turned into heated political arguments over the past two decades, social media may be to blame. Popular social media figures — or influencers — who create or share distorted political messages may cause political parties to moderate their policies to win over independent voters in general elections but tend to polarize the rest of society, according to researchers who created a model to study how social media may affect election cycles.
The researchers reported their findings today (Dec. 1) in the journal Management Information Systems Quarterly.
“Social media has become entrenched in day-to-day events and especially in the last few election cycles. The discussion around social media has focused on its role in polarizing people,” said study co-author Wael Jabr, assistant professor of supply chain and information systems at Penn State. “Are we sure that social media is indeed the culprit? Previous research shows that polarization has been on the increase for the last three or four decades, way before social media came into our lives. This became the driver to do a study on the impact of social media on the whole election cycle — on people, candidates and traditional media like newspapers and TV.”
The researchers used a “Hotelling” model to study how social media influencers may affect political parties, citizens and traditional media outlets. Widely used in business and political science, the model provides a framework to simplify social interactions among multiple participants and better understand their decision-making.