Using Latent Class Analysis to Identify Political Behavior of Moroccan Citizens on Social Media

Abstract

The high use of social media has led to a new form of political involvement and participation. In this paper, we use Latent Class Analysis to identify participants’ behavior regarding political participation and engagement based on the nature of their interaction on social media. The LCA findings reveal three statistically distinct and behavioral classes regarding political interaction on social media. The profiles were ranged from ‘Activist’ that show more engagement in political activity, such as following candidates and political parties, posting and participating in discussions related to economic, social or political issues or, encouraging others to debate their point of view, to ‘Agitator’ and ‘Outsider’ profiles that show a low probability of interacting on social media and engaging in political actions. The LCA technique has provided meaningful and distinct information on the participants’ political profile than clustering classical techniques.