More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Sjoerd B. Stolwijk; Andreas R.T. Schuck

doi:10.1177/1465116519837351

More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Sjoerd B. Stolwijk, Andreas R.T. Schuck^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Political Science and Public Administration

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Turnout in second-order elections, like those for the European Parliament, is notoriously low, especially among younger voters. This study compares five pathways in which exposure to poll coverage can affect turnout: bandwagon voting, strategic turnout, increased information efficacy, campaign cynicism and perceived electoral importance. The mediation analyses are combined with Covariate Balancing Propensity Score matching to better account for selection effects. Analyses of a four-wave panel survey of young voters (N = 747) in the 2014 European Parliament Election show that exposure to polls in election coverage predominantly stimulates interest and turnout among young voters. This is in line with the perspective that poll coverage increases perceived electoral importance. Poll coverage can thus play a beneficial role in activating the potential among young voters to engage with (second-order) elections.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	341-360
Number of pages	20
Journal	European Union Politics
Volume	20
Issue number	3
Early online date	3 Apr 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116519837351
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2019

Funding

The study uses the 2014 European Parliament Election campaign study data (De Vreese et al., 2014). A four-wave panel survey was carried out in the Netherlands by Kantar Public, a research institute that complies with European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) guidelines for survey research and holds the relevant International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approvals. Respondents were interviewed about six months prior, four months prior, and one month prior to the May 2014 elections for the EP and immediately after the elections. Fieldwork dates were 13 December 2013 to 19 January 2014 for the first wave, 20–30 March 2014 for the second wave, 17–28 April 2014 for the third wave, and 26 May to 9 June 2014 for the fourth wave. The survey was conducted using Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research project was supported by a Graduate Program Grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO; grant number 022.003.037).

Keywords

Matching
media effects
political interest
public opinion polls
turnout

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/1465116519837351

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title = "More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?",

abstract = "Turnout in second-order elections, like those for the European Parliament, is notoriously low, especially among younger voters. This study compares five pathways in which exposure to poll coverage can affect turnout: bandwagon voting, strategic turnout, increased information efficacy, campaign cynicism and perceived electoral importance. The mediation analyses are combined with Covariate Balancing Propensity Score matching to better account for selection effects. Analyses of a four-wave panel survey of young voters (N = 747) in the 2014 European Parliament Election show that exposure to polls in election coverage predominantly stimulates interest and turnout among young voters. This is in line with the perspective that poll coverage increases perceived electoral importance. Poll coverage can thus play a beneficial role in activating the potential among young voters to engage with (second-order) elections.",

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AU - Schuck, Andreas R.T.

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N2 - Turnout in second-order elections, like those for the European Parliament, is notoriously low, especially among younger voters. This study compares five pathways in which exposure to poll coverage can affect turnout: bandwagon voting, strategic turnout, increased information efficacy, campaign cynicism and perceived electoral importance. The mediation analyses are combined with Covariate Balancing Propensity Score matching to better account for selection effects. Analyses of a four-wave panel survey of young voters (N = 747) in the 2014 European Parliament Election show that exposure to polls in election coverage predominantly stimulates interest and turnout among young voters. This is in line with the perspective that poll coverage increases perceived electoral importance. Poll coverage can thus play a beneficial role in activating the potential among young voters to engage with (second-order) elections.

AB - Turnout in second-order elections, like those for the European Parliament, is notoriously low, especially among younger voters. This study compares five pathways in which exposure to poll coverage can affect turnout: bandwagon voting, strategic turnout, increased information efficacy, campaign cynicism and perceived electoral importance. The mediation analyses are combined with Covariate Balancing Propensity Score matching to better account for selection effects. Analyses of a four-wave panel survey of young voters (N = 747) in the 2014 European Parliament Election show that exposure to polls in election coverage predominantly stimulates interest and turnout among young voters. This is in line with the perspective that poll coverage increases perceived electoral importance. Poll coverage can thus play a beneficial role in activating the potential among young voters to engage with (second-order) elections.

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More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Supplemental Material1 - Supplemental material for More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Supplemental Material1 - Supplemental material for More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Cite this

More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Datasets

Supplemental Material1 - Supplemental material for More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Supplemental Material1 - Supplemental material for More interest in interest: Does poll coverage help or hurt efforts to make more young voters show up at the ballot box?

Cite this