Credibility Cost of Political Expression on Twitter

New research by Eleonora Alabrese (University of Bath), Francesco Capozza (WZB) and Prashant Garg (Imperial College Business School) reveals that expressing political views on social media can erode public trust in academics.  The study measures scientists’ political expression on social media and its impact on public perceptions of their credibility.

An experiment assesses the impact of online political expression on a representative sample of 1,700 U.S. respondents, who rated vignettes with synthetic academic profiles varying scientists’ political affiliations based on real tweets. Politically neutral scientists are viewed as the most credible. In an online experiment involving 1,700 people from the US, participants were shown vignettes featuring fake academic profiles with different political posts. They were then asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how credible they thought the academic and their research were, and their willingness to read an opinion piece written by the academic. The results of the experiment revealed that academics who stay out of political debates are seen as the most trustworthy. The more polarised their views, the less credible they become. 

The research team also surveyed 128 academics from around the world, asking them what they think about academics sharing their political views on social media. The survey revealed that many are aware of the potential risks to their credibility when expressing political opinions but despite these concerns, some still choose to engage in these discussions, possibly seeking greater visibility and impact.

The research team also analysed academics social media timelines with AI. They found that 44 percent of the nearly 100,000 US academics examined between 2016 and 2022 engaged in political debates on X (then Twitter) – six times more than the average user (7 percent). Female academics (50 percent) were more likely to be politically active than their male counterparts (40 percent), and those in the humanities and social sciences were the most outspoken (58 and 65 percent, respectively).

4/9/24