On 25 August, 2026, a new article has been published by Zoltán Kmetty and Ádám Stefkovics in Information, Communication & Society. The title of the article is “The accuracy of survey measures on political activity on Facebook. Evidence from a data donation study”.

Abstract:

Self-reported survey measures of social media use are commonly used across disciplines, yet the validity of findings in this area depends heavily on the accuracy of these reports. In political communication research, measurement error in reported online political behaviour can distort estimates of media effects and lead to misleading conclusions about online political engagement. To address this concern, our study leveraged donated digital trace data from 755 Hungarian Facebook users and compared it with responses to standard survey questions provided by the same individuals. In addition, in a pre-registered experiment, we varied the ordering of the survey items. Our findings reveal moderate correlations between self-reported and actual digital behaviour. General items showed closer alignment with observed behaviour than self-reports of specific political activities. Participants tended to under-report their most frequent general activities, such as commenting and reacting, whereas less frequent activities showed little systematic directional bias. Importantly, the weaker alignment for political activities may stem not from respondents’ inaccuracy but from difficulties in classifying digital actions as politically relevant. We discuss potential avenues for improving survey-based measures and emphasize the need for further research to address the methodological challenges associated with the use of digital trace data. 

The article is available here:

Kmetty, Z., & Stefkovics, Á. (2026). The accuracy of survey measures on political activity on Facebook. Evidence from a data donation study. Information, Communication & Society, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2026.2713664