Building Blocks: Online Political Promiscuity in Times of Polarization in Spain

Amuitz Garmendia Madariaga
Javier Lorenzo Rodríguez
Pedro Riera

Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 2022 (doi:10.5477/cis/reis.178.6).

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Abstract:

The exceptional levels of political polarization, party system fragmentation, and electoral volatility that Spain is currently experiencing, all recommend analysing the origins of these patterns. We employ a unique combination of individual-level survey and Twitter activity data pertaining to a sample of users of the Voting Advice Application we launched during the transformative 2015 Spanish general elections campaign to investigate the ideological determinants of individuals’ online network building. Our results demonstrate that, among those following online parties/candidates’ profiles, political promiscuity is the most common behaviour, though this behaviour depends heavily on users’ broader online and offline political attitudes.

Citation:

Garmendia Madariaga, Amuitz, Lorenzo Rodríguez, Javier and Pedro Riera (2024). Construyendo bloques la promiscuidad política online en tiempos de polarización en España. Revista Española De Investigaciones Sociológicas, (178), 61–82.