Intersectional Political Consumerism on TikTok: How Selective Exposure to Content Creators and TikTok Advertising Engagement Influence Black Cisgender Heterosexual and Black LGBTQ Consumers

TikTok has not only become a popular and politicized social media platform for marketers but also a marketplace for marginalized consumers to exercise identity politics through leveraging their buying power for social change. Through a survey sampling Black cisgender heterosexual (cishet) and Black LGBTQ TikTok users (N = 310), the present study investigates how Black consumers’ TikTok advertising engagement and their selective exposure to identity-specific TikTok content creators (i.e., Black LGBTQ, non-Black LGBTQ, Black non-LGBTQ) influence their political consumerism (i.e., boycotting, buycotting), creator-driven purchase intention, and social connectedness. The results revealed that, for both Black cishet and Black LGBTQ consumers, frequent exposure to intersectional Black LGBTQ TikTok content creators positively predicted their buycotting behaviors as well as their purchase decision-making prompted by TikTok content creators. Moreover, TikTok advertising engagement was significantly associated with Black consumers’ political consumerism across boycotting and buycotting as well as social connectedness, whereas only Black LGBTQ consumers with high TikTok advertising engagement reported significantly higher creator-driven purchase intention. Furthermore, frequent exposure to Black LGBTQ content creators elicited significantly higher social connectedness among Black LGBTQ consumers, whereas such congruence effects were not detected among Black cishet consumers.