The role of emotions for citizen engagement via social media – A study of police departments using twitter

Police departments increasingly use social media for enhancing their relationships with citizens. However, little is known about how specific characteristics of police-initiated messages affect whether and to what extent citizens engage with the former. This study looks at 11 large police departments using Twitter in Germany. Based on a multimethod approach, it explores the effect of content type and two emotional elements (i.e. arousal and valence) of tweets on different dimensions of citizen engagement. The latter is measured as observable online behavioral responses to police tweets in form of likes, comments, and retweets. The results suggest that emotional arousal (i.e. the emotional intensity of a tweet) plays a key role in triggering all forms of citizen engagement, while emotional valence (more specifically, the negativity of a tweet) largely shows no effect. Moreover, the impact of content type (informative versus interactive) varies across the different engagement dimensions. • Among the first studies on how emotions in police tweets drive citizen engagement. • Nuanced approach to psychological effort behind variables of citizen engagement. • High levels of emotional arousal increase likes, comments, and shares. • Tweets with negative valence largely turned out as non-significant. • Utilizing mixed, i.e. positive as well as negative emotions in one tweet is crucial. • Engagement variables suggest a match between message purpose and intended response.