Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are web-based tools designed to help voters to find a political party that matches their political views. In the past decade, VAAs have been developed in several countries in order to stimulate political discussion especially among the young and to facilitate a voting decision. At the same time, social media such as Twitter play an increasingly important role for political discussion and opinion formation. The aim of the present research is to explore the interplay of VAAs and social media. We analyzed 500 tweets regarding the main VAA in Germany, the ‘Wahl-O-Mat’, during the pre-election phase of the federal state election in North Rhine Westphalia. As a main result, we discovered that tweets that recommended the app as a product did not obtain high levels of social impact, whereas tweets with self-portrayal content (e.g., posting one’s own VAA result) elicited more engagement by other twitter users. Further results are interpreted through the lens of psychological theories. Finally, we outline practical implications for potential product improvement of the Wahl-O-Mat. Altogether, the present paper highlights the importance of integrating psychological research in the process of VAA development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.