Political Identity Threats on Social Media

IF 4.9 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Communication Research Pub Date : 2026-05-08 DOI:10.1177/00936502261443863

Daniel S. Lane, Yifei Wang, Alcides Velasquez

引用次数: 0

Abstract

One appealing explanation for the dismal state of digital politics in the U.S. is that social media offer abundant threats to users’ political identities. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for studying political identity threats on social media. A pilot study ( N = 931) established that individuals can recognize both realistic and symbolic threats when they explicitly appear in TikTok videos, but that, (a) threat types are not as discrete as theory suggests and (b) sensitivity to symbolic threat depends on strength of partisan identity. A second, pre-registered experimental study ( N = 1,279) found that the presence of explicit threats to political ingroups/outgroups influenced emotions and willingness to engage politically on social media. These effects were mediated by threat recognition and often larger for those with stronger partisan identities. This research sets an agenda for studying the presence and effects of explicitly identity-threatening social media content.

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社交媒体上的政治身份威胁

对于美国数字政治的低迷状态，一个很有吸引力的解释是，社交媒体对用户的政治身份构成了大量威胁。本文为研究社交媒体上的政治认同威胁提供了理论和实证基础。一项试点研究（N = 931）证实，当TikTok视频明确出现时，个人可以识别现实威胁和象征性威胁，但是，(A)威胁类型并不像理论所暗示的那样离散，(b)对象征性威胁的敏感性取决于党派认同的强度。第二项预先注册的实验研究（N = 1,279）发现，对政治内部群体/外部群体的明确威胁的存在影响了社交媒体上的情绪和参与政治的意愿。这些影响是由威胁认知介导的，对于那些具有更强烈党派认同的人来说，这种影响往往更大。这项研究为研究明确威胁身份的社交媒体内容的存在和影响设定了议程。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Communication Research COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

17.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Empirical research in communication began in the 20th century, and there are more researchers pursuing answers to communication questions today than at any other time. The editorial goal of Communication Research is to offer a special opportunity for reflection and change in the new millennium. To qualify for publication, research should, first, be explicitly tied to some form of communication; second, be theoretically driven with results that inform theory; third, use the most rigorous empirical methods; and fourth, be directly linked to the most important problems and issues facing humankind. Critieria do not privilege any particular context; indeed, we believe that the key problems facing humankind occur in close relationships, groups, organiations, and cultures.