Disagreement driven disengagement? Policymaker perceptions of citizen identity and responsiveness to political communication

Do perceptions of citizen identity affect policymaker responsiveness to different communication channels? This study considers that policymakers prefer to engage through communication channels that are more highly used by their supporters. To investigate this possibility, I field complementary surveys of local policymakers and the US public. I find some evidence that policymakers are more willing to respond when their supporters are seen as more likely to use a communication channel. In addition, I do not find that policymakers are more responsive to only high-cost channels, and, amongst the public, supporters are more likely than other groups to use both high-cost and low-cost channels. The findings complicate costly signaling explanations for political communication and encourage attention to disagreement driven disagreement as a potential factor in policymakers’ engagement through increasingly diversified social media and alt-tech platforms.