When Celebrities Endorse Politicians: Analyzing the Behavior of Celebrity Followers in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

TL;DR

This study investigates how celebrity endorsements influence political followers on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. election, revealing that followers' opinions often differ from those of the celebrities themselves.

Contribution

It introduces a statistical model of Twitter follow behavior to analyze the divergence between celebrity and follower political preferences in election contexts.

Findings

Followers of most celebrities tend to follow multiple candidates.

Celebrity followers' opinions can systematically differ from the celebrity's stance.

The methodology can be applied to other political and social endorsement events.

Abstract

Thanks to their name recognition and popularity, celebrities play an important role in American politics. Celebrity endorsements could add to the momentum of a politician's campaign and win the candidate extensive media coverage. There is one caveat though: the political preference of celebrity followers might differ from that of the celebrity. In this paper we explore that possibility. By carefully studying six prominent endorsements to the leading presidential candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and statistically modeling Twitter "follow" behavior, we show (1) followers of all the celebrities with the exception of Lady Gaga are more likely to follow a large number of candidates and (2) the opinion of celebrity followers could systematically differ from that of the celebrity. Our methodology can be generalized to the study of such events as NBA players' refusing to visit the White House and pop singers' meeting with Dalai Lama.