By Elizabeth Wagmeister | CNN

Former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump took out Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock to the RNC last month, while Megan Thee Stallion, George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston is among the star-studded artists who have voiced support for Vice President Kamala Harris in her White House bid.

But do celebrity election efforts move the needle? Or is it all just hype?

A new study from Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared exclusively with CNN, found that celebrities play an influential role in promoting civic participation.

“While some polls show that people claim to be unaffected by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence suggests that these voices are incredibly powerful,” according to the Harvard study.

When celebrities promote calls to action, the study found that nonprofits report higher rates of online voter registration and employee sign-ups to polls.

“Celebrities are uniquely positioned to empower ordinary Americans to use their voices and exercise their civil rights,” the report said. “Celebrities are an unparalleled force in American culture, informing what we buy, what we wear and what we talk about. With their significant influence and reach, they are powerful advocates for social and political causes.”

Harvard’s report does not examine celebrity endorsements of specific candidates or political parities, but instead focuses on the role celebrities play in nonpartisan voter turnout efforts, such as educating, mobilizing and encouraging Americans to register to vote.

“This study focused on partisan engagement and the ways to help young people make their voices heard at the ballot box,” Ashley Spillane, the study’s author and co-founder of the Civic Responsibility Project, told CNN, adding that celebrities can help create “a culture around participation, make it fun and make it something you should care about doing.”

It’s a message that could prove crucial in picking out first-time or younger voters, who “face barriers to participation, largely due to a lack of readily available information about the basic mechanics of voting in their state,” found the study. .

“Celebrities have a unique ability to connect with younger generations in a way that mainstream media and other get-out-of-the-voice efforts may not,” the study said. “Their control and presence on social media positions them as centralized sources of information that can be tapped and used by those seeking to increase voter participation.”

This campaign season has exploded across social media, with younger voters sharing cat memes (a nod to Trump’s running mate, JD Vance) and coconut tree emojis (a calling card for Harris supporters). British pop star Charli XCX reinforced Harris’ Gen Z appeal with a single tweet that read, “Kamala is brat.” Trump sat down earlier this week with a 23-year-old online streamer, Adin Rossfor an interview on the social platform, Kick, after his teenage son, Barron Trump, said he was a fan of the influencer.

Gen Z and Millennials, who will make up America’s largest voting bloc in 2028, spend an average of 180 minutes and 157 minutes a day, respectively, on social media, which is their primary source of news, according to the study.

The Harvard researchers noted the power of social media, but also explored celebrity campaigns in various media, including television, documentaries, merchandising and public service announcements. They looked at data from celebrity initiatives during the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles, including efforts by Kerry Washington, Billie Eilish, Hailey Bieber, Trevor Noah, David Dobrik, Questlove and Taylor Swift.

For example, in 2018, when Swift shared a post on Instagram to encourage her then-112 million followers to register to vote for www.vote.orgsaw the organization’s biggest new voter registration day in history, according to the report.

Other efforts under scrutiny include one by Ariana Grande, who promoted voter registration in 2019 by setting up booths at her concerts during her “Sweetener” world tour, and Kylie Jenner, who in 2020 posted a link on Instagram to register to vote, resulting in a 1,500% increase in traffic compared to the day before.