Social media influencers promote not only products and brands but also their opinions on serious topics like party politics or climate change. These so-called digital opinion leaders may exert a powerful impact on their followers’ political attitudes. Accordingly, we explore new directions to explain how influencers’ communication is related to political outcomes by proposing the concept of perceived simplification of politics (PSP). We argue that PSP may fuel political cynicism but also stimulate youth's interest in politics. We also explore important boundary conditions of these associations. We use data from three studies, a two-wave panel survey of adolescents (N_T2 = 294), a cross-sectional survey of young adults (N = 632), and a two-wave panel survey of young adults (N_T2 = 496) in Germany between 2019 and 2020. Findings of all three studies show that the frequency of exposure to social media influencers’ content increases PSP. In Studies 1 and 2, PSP is related to higher political cynicism, while in Study 3, this relationship is restricted to influencers’ communication about environmental topics and gender equality. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 suggest that PSP also increases political interest—yet this association requires a certain level of parasocial interaction (PSI) with the influencer and is contingent on specific political topics.

中文翻译：

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政治——简单解释？影响者如何影响青年对政治、政治犬儒主义和政治兴趣的感知简化

社交媒体影响者不仅宣传产品和品牌，还宣传他们对政党政治或气候变化等严肃话题的看法。这些所谓的数字舆论领袖可能对其追随者的政治态度产生强大的影响。因此，我们通过提出感知政治简化（PSP）的概念来探索新的方向来解释影响者的沟通如何与政治结果相关。我们认为，PSP 可能会助长政治犬儒主义，但也会激发青年对政治的兴趣。我们还探讨了这些关联的重要边界条件。我们使用来自三项研究的数据，一项针对青少年的两波小组调查（N _T2  = 294），一项针对年轻人的横断面调查（N = 632)，以及 2019 年至 2020 年间对德国年轻人 ( N _T2  = 496) 的两波小组调查。所有三项研究的结果都表明，接触社交媒体影响者内容的频率增加了 PSP。在研究 1 和 2 中，PSP 与更高的政治犬儒主义有关，而在研究 3 中，这种关系仅限于影响者关于环境主题和性别平等的交流。此外，研究 2 和 3 表明 PSP 还增加了政治兴趣——但这种关联需要与影响者进行一定程度的准社会互动 (PSI)，并且取决于特定的政治话题。