Can a social media ad defend democracy? Experimental evidence and some urgent lessons

Too often, we treat democratic institutions as if they are self-sustaining. But, as global trends show, they are not. People must internalise democracy and come to understand, value and defend it, even when it is under threat from their preferred political tribe. Much like learning the rules of cricket before appreciating the game, citizens need to grasp how democracy functions before they can truly support it. This makes civic education more than a technical add-on to democracy – it becomes its cultural backbone.

The problem, however, is reach. Traditional civic education programmes tend to attract the already-engaged. They often miss groups who are marginalised, sceptical or simply disinterested. Moreover, they’re expensive, time-intensive and slow to scale. So, can we use the very platforms accused of corroding democracy, like Facebook and Instagram, to reinforce it?

To test this, a team of scientists at the University of Glasgow designed a series of short, engaging videos about democracy. They then launched large-scale online experiments in countries such as Turkey, Brazil and the Philippines, measuring both immediate and longer-term effects.

The results were illuminating. While a striking 81% of participants in the control group claimed they wanted to live in a democracy, only 38% categorically rejected all non-democratic alternatives, including military rule and one-party systems. This gap between preference and principle is a crucial vulnerability.

After watching the videos, participants showed a measurable increase in both democratic knowledge and rejection of authoritarian alternatives. A small but consistent increase in reported political participation also emerged. Most strikingly, the videos reduced partisan bias: highly polarised individuals became less willing to excuse undemocratic actions by their preferred parties. In other words, even a short video could nudge people toward defending democratic norms over political loyalty – a finding with powerful implications for civic educators.

But do these effects last? In Turkey, the team at the University of Glasgow later followed up, and the impact on democratic attitudes remained statistically significant even after two weeks and especially among younger and less politically engaged viewers. These are precisely the audiences that conventional civic education often fails to reach.

Interestingly, not all videos worked equally well. Those promoting democracy’s economic benefits had less impact than those explaining its institutional and rights-based foundations. This suggests that if we want to cultivate resilient democrats, we must appeal to democracy’s intrinsic value, not merely its outcomes. Teaching the “how” and “why” of democracy may be more effective than promising what it can deliver.

Of course, this approach is not without complications. In authoritarian settings, direct political messaging can be dangerous or counterproductive. That’s why educational content focusing on how democratic institutions operate and what rights they guarantee may offer a subtler, safer and more effective path. It avoids the trappings of partisan argument while still building democratic literacy.

Social media, for all its ills, offers a critical opportunity. It is vast, pervasive and precisely targetable. Where state-controlled media dominate, paid advertisements on global platforms like Facebook and Instagram can still slip through. With billions of users, including the young and the disengaged, these platforms may offer one of the most cost-effective and scalable avenues for civic education available today.

If we are to defend democracy, we must do so where people already are – not where we wish they would be. This means reimagining civic education not just as a classroom experience, but as a ubiquitous, low-threshold presence in digital life. We cannot afford to let the authoritarians be the only ones who have mastered the attention economy.

The good news? Even a 60-second video can make a difference. The challenge now is to scale that impact – intelligently, ethically and urgently.

For more information on the project, see here.

This article draws on insights shared during the NECE Campus online event, “Amplifying digital activism in civic education,” held on 29 April 2025.

Speaker: Anja Neundorf, Professor of Politics and Research Methods at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Anja is currently leading a European Research Council Consolidator Grant project on “Democracy under Threat: How Education can Save it” (DEMED).