Adolescents as citizen scientists: Insights into their exposure to social media influencers’ sociopolitical content

Social media influencers (SMIs) are important information sources for socio-political topics among adolescents. Adolescents may even ascribe digital super peer perceptions to some SMIs for sharing sensitive information (e.g., LGBTQ+ issues, health) that may be unavailable or uncomfortable to discuss among their regular peers. However, it remains unclear which socio-political topics adolescents encounter and which differential susceptibility factors predict perceived SMI trustworthiness or perceived societal relevance of the information they provide. To address these gaps, we conducted a collaborative citizen science project with N = 386 adolescents aged 12 to 18. Adolescents contributed and indicated their appraisal of socio-political posts by SMIs about a range of socio-political topics, including sensitive issues. Attribution of altruistic motives to SMIs, less exposure to socio-political SMI content, and the presence of opinions in such content emerged as important factors explaining why adolescents may perceive SMIs as trustworthy and their socio-political information as societally relevant.