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Political expression of academics on Twitter
Prashant Garg1, Thiemo Fetzer2,3
1Department of Economics and Public Policy, Imperial College London, London, UK. prashant.garg@imperial.ac.uk.
Nature Human Behaviour
|June 3, 2025
Summary
Academics on social media shape public perception, with significant variations in political expression on topics like climate change. US scholars on Twitter differ from the general population in focus and style.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Communication Studies
- Scholarly Communication
Background:
- Academics are key knowledge creators and disseminators.
- Social media offers direct science communication channels.
- Academics on social media may disproportionately influence public perception due to selective engagement and communication style.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze patterns in academics' online expression.
- To investigate variations in politically salient academic discourse on social media.
- To compare the online communication of academics with the general public.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an international dataset of nearly 100,000 scholars.
- Linked Twitter content with academic records.
- Analyzed expression concerning climate action, cultural, and economic concepts.
Main Results:
- Documented large, systematic variations in politically salient academic expression online.
- US academics' Twitter content diverged from the general US Twitter population in topic focus and style.
- Academics' online expression did not necessarily reflect more extreme beliefs compared to the general population.
Conclusions:
- Academics' social media activity reveals significant variations in political expression.
- US academics' online communication patterns differ from the broader Twitter user base.
- Further research is needed on the impact of academics' online political expression on public trust and motivations.
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