Personality and susceptibility to political microtargeting: A comparison between a machine-learning and self-report approach

Based on recent technological advances, campaigners and political actors can use psychographic-based political marketing. Yet, empirical evidence about its effectiveness is still very limited. Based on self-congruity theory, a pre-registered experiment (N = 280) investigated the persuasion effects of personality-congruent political microtargeting on the attitude toward the political party and voting intentions of citizens. More precisely, the focus was on the thinking vs feeling personality dimension (MBTI), and it was tested whether this personality “interacts” with exposure to a matching advertising appeal: rational vs. emotional political ad. To do so, two different methodological approaches were used: 1) a machine learning approach; 2) a self-report survey measure of personality. Results revealed significant “congruence effects” between personality and ad appeal, and showed that perceived ad relevance was serving as the underlying mechanism (mediator). However, these results were only found when the self-report measure of personality was used. When the algorithmic approach was used, no significant results were found. These findings feed into timely societal, methodological, and theoretical contributions.