Lighting the participatory spark? The role of social media influencers in initiating political participation

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Respondents who reported encountering or not encountering political influencer content, by age group (per cent)

Answer	Age group
	15–24	25–34	35–44	45–54	55–65
Yes	81	74	68	55	57
No	19	26	32	45	43

Regression analyses for Figure 3 with covariates

	Mediator (0–1)		DV (0–1)
	B	SE	B	SE
Exposure to politics (0–1)	***.16	.04
EXP*Engagement (0–1)	−.16	.18
EXP*Interest (0–1)	−.08	.17
Gender	***.08	.02
Age group	***−.03	.00
Education level	−.00	.01
Constant	***.35
N	602
R2	.20
Exposure to politics (0–1)			**.07	.03
Mediator (0–1)			***.70	.03
Gender			.01	.01
Age group			−.01	.01
Education level			−.00	.00
Constant			**.09	.03
N			602
R2			.60

Respondents who reported their attitudes towards political influencer content, by age group (per cent)

Attitude	Age group
	15–24	25–34	35–44	45–54	55–65
Very positive	14	9	6	4	6
Somewhat positive	32	27	21	16	12
Neither negative nor positive	37	36	41	34	39
Somewhat negative	8	15	21	24	22
Very negative	2	4	3	12	12
Can’t say	7	9	9	11	9

Regression analyses for Figure 3

	Mediator (0–1)		DV (0–1)
	B	SE	B	SE
Exposure to politics (0–1)	***.16	.01
EXP*Engagement (0–1)	–.14	.18
EXP*Interest (0–1)	–.12	.17
Constant	***.38	.01
N	602
R2	.17
Exposure to politics (0–1)			*.06	.02
Mediator (0–1)			***.70	.03
Constant			***.04	.01
N			602
R2			.59

Respondents and their background information

Variable		Number of respondents in full sample (N = 1,025)	% of N	Number of respondents in subsample (n = 680)	% of n	% in the population (15–65)
Gender	Male	519	51	337	50	51
	Female	506	49	343	50	49
Age	15–24	183	18	148	22	17
	25–34	205	20	152	22	20
	35–44	199	19	135	20	20
	45–54	204	20	112	17	19
	55–65	234	23	133	20	23
Region	Western Finland	243	24	167	25	24
	Helsinki – Uusimaa	340	33	228	34	33
	Southern Finland	220	21	144	21	21
	Northern and Eastern Finland	222	22	140	21	22

Respondents’ engagement with political topics, by age group (per cent)

Variable		Age group
		15–24	25–34	35–44	45–54	55–65
Engagement with influencer content related to lifestyle politics	Liking	42	20	21	16	14
	Commenting	5	4	6	3	8
	Sharing	5	2	2	5	1
	Disliking	3	3	1	4	4
	No engagement	45	71	71	73	74
Engagement with influencer content related to formal politics	Liking	29	14	13	13	11
	Commenting	5	4	3	3	8
	Sharing	5	5	4	5	3
	Disliking	1	2	2	2	4
	No engagement	60	76	78	78	74