Pop star Taylor Swift took to Instagram on Tuesday to endorse Kamala Harris for president.

Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Images

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Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Images

Tuesday night, Taylor Swift has given a long-awaited approval – she is endorsing Vice President Harris for president. “She is fighting for the rights and causes that I believe need a warrior to defend them,” Swift wrote on Instagram“I think she is a steady, gifted leader and I believe we can achieve much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Last month, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won reposted an AI generated image of the pop star wearing an Uncle Sam outfit, in which he accepted her apparent support for his campaign. The post appeared on the politician’s Truth Social network. (He has since refused (He knows nothing about the pictures.)

But Swift wrote that the incident raised her fears about AI and prompted her to share her “real plans for this election as a voter.” When Trump posted the AI ​​image, we looked at the history of celebrity endorsements and their effects. You can read that story here:

Why Celebrity Endorsements Matter

Celebrities support brands in politics as much as they do in consumer products.

“Celebrities get more engagement, more attention, and they create more conversation,” said Ashley Spillane, the author of a new study from Harvard’s Kennedy School on celebrity involvement in politics — focusing on civic participation. “And regardless of the political party or the candidate, there’s a real hunger to be connected to the celebrities who can.”

Spillane says her research shows you don’t have to be a big star like Swift to influence voters.

“Some other people with smaller followings had just as big an impact because they also had incredibly engaged followings,” she said.

There is a long history of big names throwing their weight behind White House candidates, dating back to the 1920s, when movie stars Mary Pickford and Al Jolson backed Warren G. Harding.

Frank Sinatra expressed his support for future President Ronald Reagan at a 1979 fundraising event in Boston.

“Why do I support Governor Reagan?” Sinatra said. “Because I think he’s the right man to be president of the United States. Because things are so messed up right now, we need somebody to straighten it out.”

Oprah Winfrey gave her reasons for supporting Barack Obama The Larry King Show in 2007. “What he stands for, what he’s shown he can stand for, what he’s fought for, that was worth fighting for,” Winfrey said.

A Study from 2008 from Northwestern University assessed the impact of Winfrey’s endorsement of Obama. It showed that the media star was responsible for about a million extra votes for the 44th president.

Celebrity endorsements can be tricky

But other research tells a different story.

For example, a Report 2010 from North Carolina State University concluded that celebrity endorsements such as George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did not help political candidates.

And having famous people cheering on your political campaign isn’t a guarantee.

“It could backfire,” says Michael Platt, a professor of neuroscience, psychology and marketing at the Wharton School of Business and author of a Study 2023 about celebrities who support you. “Maybe it’s a celebrity you don’t like or whose politics don’t align with you.”

There is also the potential problem that the celebrity at famous. Platt calls this the “Vampire Effect.”

“They’re sucking up all of our attention, right?” he said. “Which means there’s less attention, less processing, that’s being given to the candidate that you might be supporting.”

The Rise of Fake AI Celebrity Recommendations

The rise of social media and deepfakes created by artificial intelligence, such as Swift’s fake newsletter falsely supporting Trump, are also a problem.

“There have certainly been manipulated celebrity photos since the dawn of photography, but the widespread use of AI and its ubiquity are new,” said Douglas Mirell, an entertainment attorney at the law firm Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who works to combat the unauthorized use of AI. “It’s so ubiquitous and so potentially manipulable that people can’t tell what’s true and what’s not. So AI really poses a much more serious threat to the fundamental touchstone of democracy, which is truth-telling.”

Mirell said the impact of AI-generated images on election outcomes remains to be seen.

“When we’re talking about people like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, their endorsements could potentially be really important,” he said. “And that’s why I think everyone should be really concerned about this issue.”