Up Close and Personal on Facebook: Bounded Benefits of Politicians’ Personal Disclosures

• In Event: Elites, Technology, and Politics

Abstract

An experiment (N=240) investigated if, and if so, when politicians’ personal disclosures on Facebook enhance individuals’ evaluations of and their intention to vote for them. Exposure to a politician’s personal messages on Facebook, as compared to impersonal messages highlighting the politician’s public activities, induced more positive evaluations of the politician, which in turn, heightened vote intention. Such effects, however, were more pronounced when the politician was male and among those who rated Facebook to be more appropriate for building and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Female politicians’ posts were better recalled when they concerned personal stories, rather than work-related matters, but male candidates’ posts were remembered equally well, regardless of the content. Also, the tendency to recall personal messages better than impersonal messages was found only among those who perceived Facebook to be highly appropriate for interpersonal goals. Results are discussed in light of expectancy violations theory and the task-media fit hypothesis.

Authors

• Eun-Ju Lee, Seoul National U

• Soo Youn Oh

• Jihye Lee, Stanford U