The (indirect) effect of social media consumption on political distrust in Egypt

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on the effect of social media usage on political attitudes. Our research question is: Does the use of social media affect citizens’ political trust? We test this research question using Egypt’s Arab Barometer Wave V country data (2018–2019). We expect social media usage to increase political distrust among citizens through the three mediating variables: corruption perceptions, perceptions of poor government performance, and perceptions of missing guaranteed freedoms. Our quantitative study results confirm these mediating relationships; that is, social media usage significantly increases political distrust among Egyptian citizens by increasing corruption perception, perceptions of poor government performance, and perceptions of a lack of guaranteed freedoms.