Lonely hearts, empty booths? The relationship between loneliness, reported voting behavior and voting as civic duty

  • Objective: The study investigates the relationship between perceived loneliness and the individuals' attitude whether voting is a civic duty. With that, it is the first study to shed light on the mechanism linking perceived loneliness to voting behavior. Methods: Two independent, cross-sectional, and representative datasets from Germany (n = 1641) and the Netherlands (n = 1431) are analyzed. Results: The regression results and effect decomposition techniques show that loneliness is associated with reduced intention to vote as well as a lower sense of duty to vote. The effect of loneliness on voting behavior is partially mediated through a reduced sense of duty. Conclusion: Loneliness is associated with political disengagement. The study provides empirical evidence that the relationship between loneliness and turnout is partially mediated through sense of duty. This showcases that lonely individuals tend to feel detached from society and are less likely to feel obligated to participate in the electoral process.

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Metadaten
Author:Alexander LangenkampORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-620960
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12946
ISSN:1540-6237
Parent Title (English):Social science quarterly
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Place of publication:Weinheim
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/03/16
Date of first Publication:2021/03/16
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2021/08/23
Volume:2021
Issue:online version of record before inclusion in an issue
Page Number:16
First Page:1
Last Page:16
Note:
Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
HeBIS-PPN:489347215
Institutes:Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0