TikTok and Civic Activity Among Young Adults

TikTok and Political Networking

Political networks influence political behaviors ranging from one’s choice of partisan identification to voting in elections (Hall & Sinclair, 2019; Sinclair, 2012). Consequently, offline political activity is more likely when one is incorporated into a politically active social network (Christakis & Fowler, 2009; Sinclair, 2012). Recently, social networking apps have provided places for politically oriented networks to rapidly expand. Online political expression on social networks allows others with concurring views and concerns to connect and mobilize for action offline (Moffett & Rice, 2018; Ortiz & Ostertag, 2014; Sinclair, 2012) including offline protest participation (Larson et al., 2019).

Among young adults, connections to those politically active may generate positive peer pressure toward political activity (Sinclair, 2012). This peer pressure relates to increases in college students’ offline civic engagement, as those who engage in both friendship-driven political activities and issue-driven political activities on larger social networks are more apt to participate politically (Moffett & Rice, 2016; Kahne & Bowyer, 2018). Yet, this peer pressure through political connections operates differently on TikTok than on other social media platforms. TikTok is less follower-based than social media apps like Facebook and Twitter (Guineaudeau et al., 2020). Instead of building a formalized network of connections, young adults view videos and use cues within them to identify the extent to which their creators are similar (Kennedy, 2020). Thus, networks on TikTok center more on perceptions of affinity than direct ties. Still, online political expression via TikTok allows others with concurring concerns and views to seek and discover one another, mutually share content, tag others, and mobilize for offline political activity in ways similar to other social media apps (see, e.g., Moffett & Rice, 2018; Ortiz & Ostertag, 2014). This should encourage engagement in offline civic activity.

TikTok, Building Efficacy, and the Development of a Political Self

TikTok disproportionately attracts teens and young adults (Wells & Glazer, 2020). This age group is transitioning toward increased incentives to develop their political selves. This involves a sense of politics as part of one’s identity—a recognition of one’s own opinions about politics, a perception that one is qualified to express one’s opinions, and a confidence in one’s own ability to become a political actor and participate in politics. As young adults gain their full citizenship rights, their voice matters in ways it could not previously. While not riskless, social media-based political expression may be a safer space for expression to young people than performing offline civic activities because it is more familiar (see, e.g., Moffett & Rice, 2016; Hall & Sinclair, 2019). As digital natives with much of their lives spent on social media, young adults turn to social media to participate in politics (Ohme, 2019). Political expression on social media can influence how those engaged in such activity perceive themselves, as they begin to view themselves as political actors (Lane et al., 2019). Online political expression helps engage young adults in a broader political world, makes electoral politics relevant, and moves them from seeing themselves as consumers to being producers (Yamamoto et al., 2015). This movement is consequential as creating user-generated content predicts both online and offline civic activities by encouraging young people to move from seeing themselves as consumers to being political expression producers (Ostman, 2012). Moving from consumer to producer is akin to developing a political self. This is a form of “message release effects,” where the act of political expression might influence how those engaging in it see themselves politically (Pingree, 2007). Through posting a political tiktok, young people express their political opinions and share them with others. Such action may have an impact on not just those who view it but on the one releasing the message.

People present aspirational versions of themselves on social media (Zhao et al., 2008). Young adults may post their political views publicly as a trial run. However, expressing oneself about politics via social media publicly articulates a stance (Cho et al., 2018; Hall & Sinclair, 2019). This provides accountability and pressure to satisfy the aspirational self that one presents as reality online by continually discussing politics and taking actions that advance one’s views. Moreover, seeing that others have similar views may reassure young people that their views are not isolated, making them more willing to act. For example, commenting about politics on Facebook or exposure to those who share their viewpoints online is associated with increases in efficacy and perceived political participation (Lane et al., 2019).

Yet, the opportunity to have one’s voice matter and believing that it does (efficacy) are not synonymous. Efficacy is associated with multiple forms of offline political participation from voting to contacting elected officials (Pollock, 1983; Becker, 2011). Young adults tend to engage in offline civic activities when they perceive that they are politically competent (internal efficacy) and that they can influence politics (external efficacy) (Krampen, 2000). Efficacy develops through many online activities including political expression and discussion (Alberici & Milesi, 2016; Yang & DeHart, 2016). For example, commenting about politics on Facebook is associated with increases in efficacy and political participation (Chan, 2016; Lane et al., 2019). Also, expressing political opinions online provides a potentially wide audience and may yield discussions with others and heightened offline civic activity (Hall & Sinclair, 2019; Vaccari et al., 2015). These links between online political expression and offline civic engagement most consistently occur among young adults (Boulianne, 2015; Moffett & Rice, 2016). Like other apps, TikTok may build efficacy and help young adults develop a political self by offering them a relatively low-cost opportunity to test out this nascent identity (see, e.g., Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2012; Ortiz & Ostertag, 2014; Lane et al., 2019).

Through lighthearted activities that underlie TikTok, like dance, music, or comedy, young adults can make political expression less formal or serious and more inviting. These attributes may appeal to those exploring politics because they offer a lighthearted form of participation with lower perceived stakes that forgives mistakes (Rice & Moffett, 2019; Vijay & Gekker, 2021). Yet, through playfully engaging with politics, young adults may develop the efficacy needed to engage in what they see as more serious politics. Moreover, political humor can be connected to higher levels of political participation (Baumgartner & Lockerbie, 2018), enhanced trust in government (Becker, 2011), and increases in political efficacy (Becker, 2014). Political expressions like these may help young people develop citizenship vocabularies that clarify their place in public life (Thorson, 2012) and help them transition from political spectators to actors (Lane et al., 2019).

Sharing TikToks

Creating and sharing politically related tiktoks constitute active political expression. Consistent with longstanding research linking online political expression among young adults to heightened offline civic engagement (see, e.g., Boulianne, 2015), we expect links between posting political tiktoks and higher levels of civic engagement for two reasons. First, posting political tiktoks helps incorporate young people into political social networks. Prior research connects being a part of political social networks and engaging in other forms of political participation (Christakis & Fowler, 2009; Sinclair, 2012). Yet, since TikTok facilitates fewer direct connections than other popular social media platforms, as evidenced by the low percentage of users reporting checking their followed accounts page (Wang, 2018), this standard causal pathway is likely to be muted among TikTok users. This makes testing whether the link between social media use and civic engagement holds for TikTok important.

Second, those who post tiktoks present a political self and are more apt to see themselves as political actors (Lane et al., 2019). This is an important transition for nascent voters. Some have characterized Tiktok as a forum for “playing” politics, helping those engaging in it learn what is allowed and useful, essentially discovering the rules of the game through trial and error (Serrano et al., 2020; Vijay & Gekker, 2021). TikTok does not uniquely encourage frivolity in political expression, as sending political videos on Snapchat, which also encourages playfulness, results in higher levels of offline civic engagement (Rice & Moffett, 2019). Yet, political tiktoks tend to be more playful or humorous, as happiness, surprise, and sarcasm were among the most common emotions in these videos (Serrano et al., 2020). This process of “playing” politics through sharing videos within the app may partly comprise the causal mechanism that links this activity with enhanced offline civic activity, as the seemingly trivial can help boost efficacy (Baumgartner & Lockerbie, 2018; Becker, 2011, 2014) and provoke deeper engagement. Further, this pathway does not require that those who post political tiktoks engage in humor or frivolity in order to develop a political self and engage in heightened levels of civic activity. Instead, the playful environment lowers the perceived entry cost to the political world.

The low stakes nature of “playing” politics by posting political tiktoks is likely to attract more than just those already politically engaged or interested. This potentially broadens who participates by helping previously disengaged young adults see themselves as political actors. By experimenting with political expression in an app that encourages creativity, young people can develop a political identity and a citizenship vocabulary that helps place themselves in the political world (Ostman, 2012; Thorson, 2012). Additionally, popular political tiktoks generate positive responses which can boost efficacy and encourage additional offline civic activity. This externally validates one’s political self. Those who post political tiktoks should begin to see themselves as well qualified to participate in civic and political life. And, by publicly identifying one’s political self, those who post political tiktoks may feel empowered and obligated to perform other forms of offline civic activity. For example, posting a tiktok urging people to support a candidate creates an expectation that the tiktok’s creator votes. The tiktok’s creator, then, may feel increased internal and peer pressure to satisfy that expectation. They may post a tiktok about having voted to encourage others to follow suit and demonstrate they placed themselves in public life.

Similarly, those who post an issue-focused political tiktok may then feel internal and external pressure to follow-up with supportive action, like working with a community group to solve the problem, attending a protest related to that issue, or contacting elected officials to bring about change. In this way, their online and offline political selves begin to align. Thus, the confidence gained through trying out one’s political self on TikTok, combined with the internal and external pressure to follow through on this now public identity with other political actions such as voting or contacting elected officials, may help encourage branching out to more traditional offline forms of participation.

Altogether, while the standard pathway linking social network involvement to civic engagement may be weakened on TikTok, other app features lower the stakes of trying out a political self on TikTok, which may broaden who develops a political self, an important precursor to engaging in other forms of civic and political activity. While we lack the data to fully test both causal pathways, we can evaluate several observable implications from our theory. We hypothesize that, all else equal, young adults who post political tiktoks are more likely to have heightened levels of civic engagement (H1).

Methodology and Matching Technique

To query whether posting videos on TikTok is connected to offline civic activity, we use a matching analysis to compute the average treatment effect for the treated (ATT). Matching allows us to investigate whether our treatment variable (posting videos on TikTok) has some causal connection with our object of interest (offline civic engagement). ¹⁰ Matching allows us to match pairs of respondents based on the matching covariates to generate inferences that allow us to go beyond each individual’s other inclinations toward offline civic engagement (such as interest in politics).

Matching also confers other empirical advantages. First, OLS (ordinary least squares) does not permit us to estimate what happens to offline civic engagement in the absence of posting videos on TikTok (Nichols, 2007). ¹¹ Matching rectifies this issue because it uses the existing data to produce a dataset that includes observations that are as similar as feasible, given the values of the remaining predictors (Stuart, 2010). A matching estimator, then, enables us to use this dataset to estimate what would have happened to offline civic engagement at each level of posting videos on TikTok compared to not having posted videos on TikTok at all while OLS does not permit such an estimation (see Imbens & Rubin, 2015). ¹² For example, a matching estimator allows us to estimate what happened to offline civic engagement when one sometimes posts videos on TikTok compared to someone who did not post videos at all on TikTok. Second, matching lets us disentangle the effects of posting videos on TikTok on offline civic engagement beyond individuals’ other inclinations to engage. This enables us to compare people with similar predispositions to offline civic activity who only vary in the extent to which they post videos on TikTok.

Third, matching provides a more nuanced test of the theory and hypothesis that we present. We hypothesize no prediction about the treatment effects at each level of posting videos on TikTok beyond carrying a positive sign. Matching provides a more flexible functional form that allows us to estimate the effects of each level of posting videos on offline civic activity. In the process, we get more precise, better informed estimates of the effects of posting videos on TikTok on offline civic engagement using observational data (Imbens & Rubin, 2015). Individuals likely have different treatment effects, particularly depending on the frequency with which they post videos on TikTok (see Abadie & Imbens, 2011). This approach allows for treatment effects to be nonlinear or for the presence of threshold effects. Conversely, regression-based techniques assume a linear, homogeneous relationship between posting videos on TikTok and offline civic activity (see Greene, 2018). ¹³

To perform the matching analyses, we use one-to-one genetic matching with replacement (Diamond & Sekhon, 2013; Sekhon, 2011). We incorporate a propensity score into the analysis, as knowing estimated values of this score meaningfully improves this method’s accuracy (Diamond & Sekhon, 2013). Propensity score matching allows us to compare observations that are otherwise similar across other predictors but have experienced different treatments. We perform our analysis with replacement, as matching discrepancies are reduced because we can use untreated units as a match multiple times (see Abadie & Imbens, 2006). ¹⁴ To remove any bias resulting from the choice of the matching estimator without affecting the variance of that estimator, we employ a bias correction (Abadie & Imbens, 2016). Additionally, we follow King and Nielsen’s (2019) counsel in implementing this matching technique by appropriately scaling our variables, using this technique on a dataset with high levels of imbalance, and by reporting imbalance statistics before and after matching in Appendix C.

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable is the extent to which each person participated in offline civic and political activities. Through separate questions, we asked each respondent about their frequency of engagement in twelve activities on a five-point scale that ranged from doing so “never” to “very often.” These activities included attending political functions in support of a candidate or party, talking to individuals and explaining why they should vote for or against a specific candidate or party, and making purchasing decisions based on a company’s conduct or values. Nearly all these activities have been analyzed in other work that examines civic engagement (see, e.g., Adler & Goggin, 2005; Rice & Moffett, 2022; Uslaner & Brown, 2005; Zukin et al., 2006). Consistent with how civic engagement frequently gets defined, seven of the twelve indicators are connected to elections while the remaining are not. To generate a single measure of offline civic engagement, we summed the values for each of the twelve queried activities to produce an index (α = .95; M = 23.19; SD = 14.18). The mean of this index corresponds to performing half of the activities in this index very often but with substantial variance. Thus, our survey captures both low and high participators. ¹⁵

Treatment Variable and Matching Covariates

For the treatment variable, we asked each respondent about the extent to which they shared videos they recorded related to politics on TikTok. ¹⁶ The response options were on a five-point scale ranging from never to very often. We then match based on several covariates known to influence offline civic engagement. This enables us to isolate the impact of posting political tiktoks on offline civic activity, while matching based on other factors known to influence offline civic activity. We used several variables to account for different forms of political information seeking, as this behavior can foster enhanced offline civic activity (Towner & Dulio, 2011; Moffett & Rice, 2018). We asked each respondent how often they read blogs online about politics and how frequently they read news on the internet about politics. ¹⁷ We also asked about the extent to which each respondent paid attention to campaigns.

Through separate questions, we also asked each respondent about the extent to which they shared politically oriented videos they recorded on other social media platforms, as this can facilitate enhanced civic activity (Rice & Moffett, 2019; Towner & Dulio, 2011). We took these indicators and created a binary coded one if a respondent posted videos on any of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and zero otherwise. We include this measure because we want to match based on similar predispositions toward posting videos on other social media platforms. This allows the ATT that we estimate to explicitly match after accounting for similar predispositions toward posting videos on other social media platforms.

We also consider personal interest and peer motivation to engage in politics. First, we queried the extent to which each respondent is interested in politics. Second, we asked each respondent three questions about the extent to which their friends engaged in a set of activities, as social networks drive political participation that ranges from voting to partisan identification (see, e.g., Christakis & Fowler, 2009; Hall & Sinclair, 2019; Sinclair, 2012). We built an additive index from these responses to examine the impact of peer civic activities (α = .58). ¹⁸ Third, we asked each respondent about the extent to which they evaluated themselves as well-qualified to participate in politics as a measure of internal political efficacy.

Moreover, we employed several variables to account for the effects of personal characteristics on offline civic activity. First, we measure the extent to which each respondent strongly identifies with either the Republican or Democratic parties, as this attachment is associated with an array of other political activities (see, e.g., Sinclair, 2012). We computed a binary variable for those who self-identified as having strong partisan attachments.

Second, we account for the effects of ideology on offline civic activity, as self-identifying as either conservative or liberal shapes political participation (Achen & Bartels, 2016). We asked each respondent if they self-identified as a conservative, moderate, liberal, something else, or if they did not know. If the respondent answered something other than conservative or liberal, then we followed up with a question about whether that person self-identified as a liberal or conservative if they had to choose, using these responses to generate a binary for liberals.

Third, we asked each respondent for their sex, and we coded this variable one for females, two for males, and three for people who self-identified in another category. Fourth, we asked respondents to report their month and year of birth and then computed each respondent’s age based on the month and year of the 2020 presidential election. Fifth, each respondent was asked for their race and we coded this variable one for people who stated that they were Non-Hispanic African Americans, two for Non-Hispanic Asian Americans, three for Hispanic or Latinx, four for Non-Hispanic Caucasians, five for Non-Hispanic Native Americans, six for those who self-identifed as multiracial, and seven for those who self-identified as something else. ¹⁹ Sixth, we asked each respondent for their level of education by asking them to choose an option from a five-point scale ranging from not having graduated high school to self-identifying as a college graduate.

Political Self-Development and Perceptions of Qualifications to Participate in Politics

Before formally testing our hypothesis, we evaluate two observable implications from the theory. These implications link posting political tiktoks to heightened civic engagement through the causal mechanism of developing a political self. If the low cost, playful nature of political expression on TikTok expands who participates, then we should see significant percentages of young people across all levels of interest in politics post political tiktoks. Figure 1 displays the percentage of respondents who posted political tiktoks across each level of interest in politics. While the percentages of posting political tiktoks rises with each increasing level of interest in politics, ²⁰ even among those reporting they are not at all or not very interested in politics, 70% reported posting political tiktoks. This suggests that an array of young people try out their political selves by posting political tiktoks.

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Figure 1.

Percent of TikTok Users Reporting Posting Political Videos on TikTok by Level of Interest in Politics. Notes. Under 2% of respondents said they were not at all interested in politics, so this category is combined with those reporting they were not very interested in politics. We used z-scores to compare proportions across groups. The one-tailed significance tests show that the differences are statistically distinct when comparing the proportion posting political videos on TikTok among those not at all or not very interested to somewhat interested (z = −2.01; p = .02222); those somewhat interested to very interested (z = −3.289; p = .0005); and those not at all or not very interested to those very interested (z = −1.85; p = .0318).

The second observable implication is that those who post political tiktoks will see themselves as political actors, qualified to participate in political life. We evaluate this by observing the percentage of respondents who strongly agree with the statement, “I consider myself well qualified to participate in politics,” across each level of posting political videos on TikTok, as displayed in Figure 2. Those who post political tiktoks more frequently are more likely to see themselves as highly qualified to participate in politics, with an increase from 13.2% among those who posted political videos on TikTok never or rarely to 34.4% among those who posted political videos very often. We used z-scores to compare proportions across groups and evaluate whether these differences are statistically significant. The results show that the percentages strongly agreeing with “I consider myself well qualified to participate in politics” are not statistically distinct from each other when comparing those posting never, rarely, or sometimes. However, values for posting frequently and very often are significantly higher than values for posting never with z-scores of −1.88 (p = .0298) and −3.04 (p = .0012), respectively. Further, values for posting sometimes and very often statistically differ from each other (z = −2.13; p = .0164) as do values for posting very often and frequently (z = −1.47; p = .0711). This suggests that greater levels of posting political tiktoks are associated with a heightened likelihood of developing a strong political self. ²¹ While neither observable implication confirms the causal pathway, they are consistent with it, and lend it some plausibility. This leads to our main research question (RQ1), does posting political tiktoks result in heightened civic engagement?

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Figure 2.

Percentage Strongly Agreeing With “I consider myself well qualified to participate in politics” by Level of Posting Political Videos on TikTok. Notes. We used z-scores to compare proportions across groups. The results of one-tailed tests show never, rarely, and sometimes were not statistically distinct from each other. When comparing never and frequently, z = −1.88 and p = .0298. When comparing never and very often, z = −3.04 and p = .0012. When comparing very often and frequently, z = −1.47 and p = .0711. Sometimes and frequently are not statistically distinct from each other but when comparing sometimes and very often z = −2.13 and p = .0164.