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How Politicians Learn from Citizens’ Feedback: The Case of Gender on Twitter

How Politicians Learn from Citizens’ Feedback: The Case of Gender on Twitter This article studies how politicians react to feedback from citizens on social media. We use a reinforcement‐learning framework to model how politicians respond to citizens’ positive feedback by increasing attention to better received issues and allow feedback to vary depending on politicians’ gender. To test the model, we collect 1.5 million tweets published by Spanish MPs over 3 years, identify gender‐issue tweets using a deep‐learning algorithm (BERT) and measure feedback using retweets and likes. We find that citizens provide more positive feedback to female politicians for writing about gender, and that this contributes to their specialization in gender issues. The analysis of mechanisms suggests that female politicians receive more positive feedback because they are treated differently by citizens. To conclude, we discuss implications for representation, misperceptions, and polarization. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Political Science Wiley

How Politicians Learn from Citizens’ Feedback: The Case of Gender on Twitter

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2023 by the Midwest Political Science Association.
ISSN
0092-5853
eISSN
1540-5907
DOI
10.1111/ajps.12772
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article studies how politicians react to feedback from citizens on social media. We use a reinforcement‐learning framework to model how politicians respond to citizens’ positive feedback by increasing attention to better received issues and allow feedback to vary depending on politicians’ gender. To test the model, we collect 1.5 million tweets published by Spanish MPs over 3 years, identify gender‐issue tweets using a deep‐learning algorithm (BERT) and measure feedback using retweets and likes. We find that citizens provide more positive feedback to female politicians for writing about gender, and that this contributes to their specialization in gender issues. The analysis of mechanisms suggests that female politicians receive more positive feedback because they are treated differently by citizens. To conclude, we discuss implications for representation, misperceptions, and polarization.

Journal

American Journal of Political Science – Wiley

Published: Mar 22, 2023

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