2025/03/03 by Marta Fraile, Alejandro Tirado Castro, Paula Zuluaga Borrero · 2 voices
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation #Gender and Feminist Studies #Gender, Feminism, and Media
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743923x24000539
openalex publication_date 2025/03/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This study explores the role of influencers in shaping public opinion about feminism in Spain, a country where gender equality and feminist discourse have gained relevant public prominence. Although the figure of the influencer may appear novel, the process of opinion formation mirrors that which has historically prevailed for celebrities in traditional media. However, the inherent characteristics of social media endow influencers with even greater tools of persuasion. We test this argument by collecting a representative survey of the Spanish population and analyzing posts and videos from influencers’ profiles, employing manual content analysis. Our findings reveal that audiences of incidental feminist influencers exhibit stronger pro-feminist attitudes, while those of incidental anti-feminist influencers lean toward anti-feminist views. Additional analysis using propensity score matching offers further evidence of the persuasive power of influencers, even after adjusting for potential selection biases in their audiences.