Voter classification based on susceptibility to persuasive strategies: A machine learning approach

Abstract

The current literature on the campaigns of political marketing is based on mass communication. However, the online community introduces new opportunities, one of them is captology. As a part of captology, the persuasive strategies take increasing attention from both authors and practitioners. There is a growing literature that persuasive technologies are useful in the attitudinal and behavioral change of the targeted group, which is the aim of political marketing. This research introduces the persuasive strategies into political marketing literature. In this manuscript, respondents are discriminated based on their susceptibility to the persuasive strategies to determine which persuasive strategy has effects on liberals and conservative. Findings suggest that liberals and conservatives can be discriminated based on their susceptibility to persuasive strategies using machine learning algorithms. The findings of the study offer new insights into political marketing campaigns.