Ethnic Minorities’ Social Media Political Use: How Ingroup Identification, Selective Exposure, and Collective Efficacy Shape Social Media Political Expression

Latinos represent a large ethnic minority group in the United States, but their political participation, including on social media, is low compared to other groups. Guided by social identity and \nsocial cognitive theories, this study examines the influence of two dimensions of ingroup identification (i.e., group self-definition, group self-investment) on Latinos(as)’ political expression about \nimmigration and Latino culture on social media, the mediating role of pro-attitudinal selective \nexposure to media content related to these topics, and the moderating role of collective efficacy. \nResults suggest a positive and consistent association between group self-definition and social \nmedia political expression (SMPE) about both topics. Further, pro-attitudinal selective exposure \nwas found to mediate the relationship between group self-definition and expression about both \ntopics. Finally, collective efficacy moderated the relationship between group self-definition and \nSMPE about immigration.