Politics and social media: an analysis of factors anteceding voting intention

The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of social media on voting intentions. We conduct a survey with 559 Brazilian voters. To estimate the results, we use the structural equation modeling technique, with the partial least squares (PLS). The results suggest that the voting intention can be negatively influenced by the image of political parties and positively by the voter opinion, voter trust and candidate's image. The results also suggest that social media positively affect voter opinion, voter trust, candidate's image and political party image. These findings help to better understand voter behavior, especially when there is the use of social media in the political electoral context, especially in Brazil.