THE POTENTIAL OF TWITTER IMAGES FOR GALVANIZING CITIZENS TO COLLECTIVE ACTION

Abstract

This experiment explored the mobilizing potential of image-only tweets about Black Lives Matter protests compared to text-only tweets to stimulate collective action among Caucasians. A 2 (tweet modality: image vs. textual) x 3 (tweet content type: anger-evoking, efficacy-eliciting, neutral), between-subjects design was employed with collective action intent as the dependent variable. Contrary to expectation, the results produced no evidence that image-based tweets are more effective than text-based ones, or that emotional content is better than non-emotional content, at motivating citizens to become politically engaged. Anger-evoking, image-based protest tweets were only marginally more galvanizing among Caucasians than non-anger evoking image-based tweets. However, the results showed that efficacy-eliciting textual tweets stoked greater intention to participate than efficacy-eliciting image tweets. Furthermore, men, more than women, were more inclined to get involved in social protests after viewing anger-evoking images. Women, on the other hand were more inspired to take protest action than men after exposure to efficacy-eliciting images.