Image, issue, and affective priming effects of candidates’ Facebook posts on voters’ trait perceptions and overall evaluations

Trait perception is crucial to electoral support. Increasingly, candidates are using social media posts to shape their images, prime trait perception, and enhance overall evaluations. This study distinguishes three types of priming effects – namely, image priming, issue priming, and affective priming. Three online experiments assess these effects in the context of Facebook campaigns. The image priming effects were consistently confirmed. When coupled with issue discussions, their effectiveness was amplified only for applicable issues in positive tones. The suitability of applying media priming theory to social media campaigns is also discussed.