Twitter and Affective Polarisation: Following Political Leaders in Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study addresses the effect of the discourse of elites on Twitter on citizens’ affective polarisation through a quasi-experiment that was embedded in a survey panel. Participants were invited to follow one of the Twitter accounts of nine candidates from the main political parties during the 2019 European Parliament electoral campaign in Spain. Experiment compliance among participants was confirmed using web-tracking data (passive metre). The results show that exposure to candidates’ Twitter accounts by self-selection does not increase affective polarisation. Although high levels of polarisation might contribute to building echo chambers, the polarising content contained in the partisan Twitter accounts has no effect on increasing affective polarisation, even among those who strongly identify with such parties. This finding confirms the so-called limited media effect hypothesis for social media.