Instrumental Bot Identities and the Politics of Online Discourse
2025-09-27
Social media platforms are crucial for political and social engagement, where identity profoundly shapes public opinion. While existing research explores social media and identity, the rise of sophisticated bots complicates this relationship; bots programmed to mimic human identity groups may influence discourse and sway opinion on critical issues like elections and climate change. Addressing a gap in theoretical work, this article proposes the concept of instrumental bot identities, explaining how bots can be strategically designed to leverage and co-opt social identity processes for enhanced impact. By developing a theoretical framework, I outline the characteristics (e.g. relevance, familiarity, anonymity) and interaction patterns (e.g. influencing ingroup/outgroup dynamics) that could make specific identities instrumental for bot campaigns. Using the case of fossil fuel workers, a politically salient group in energy transition discussions, the article illustrates how bots could simulate classed and gendered characteristics to reinforce stereotypes, shape group norms, and ultimately influence public attitudes toward decarbonization policies. This framework highlights that bot effectiveness may stem from exploiting identity-motivated reasoning, offering crucial insights for understanding and mitigating online manipulation in polarized contexts.