Helping students feel better about themselves may help them vote too.
New research supported by the Student Vote Research Network suggests that how students feel about themselves may affect their desire to vote as much as how they feel about politics.
This post is the first in a new State of the Student Vote series about the research results from the projects supported by the first round of Student Vote Research Network subgrants.
Our research focuses on the connection between how students feel about themselves and their desire to vote.
When researchers think about how to reach 100% student voting, they often seek the most effective interventions to increase registration and turnout by looking at how students think and feel about voting (Nickerson 2006; Eustice et. al, 2021; Dalton & Crosby, 2008; Green & Gerber, 2015). Topics of interest include whether students think their vote matters, the logistics of registration and voting, and other voting related topics.
While these are important questions to consider, our research takes a slightly different approach by asking how students think and feel about themselves. Do they perceive that people like them have a role to play in the American political system? Do they feel confident in their ability to enact change?
Does boosting self esteem boost student voting?
Our hypothesis was that young voters in particular struggle to feel like they are capable of acting effectively in politics and this presents a psychological barrier to voting. In particular, based on existing research by Bennion & Nickerson (2019) on the differences between students and the broader electorate, we hypothesized that students are hesitant to vote because they
perceive themselves as less knowledgeable about the civic space compared to older adults and
are more likely to believe they lack the ability to impact politics through voting.
Our goal was to identify innovative, impactful messaging that could strengthen mobilization efforts at colleges and universities across the country. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate some of our initial ideas. We aimed to identify whether priming for political power or political knowledge has a greater impact on intention to vote among college students attending community colleges and minority serving institutions.
We studied the connection between self esteem and voting with a message test.
We worked with partners at LeadMN, Alabama State University, Morgan Student University, Miles College, and College of the Canyons to invite students to participate in a survey about American politics. 321 students participated including 209 students who identified as women, 92 who identified as men, and 20 who identified as other. Almost all respondents attended either a community college or HBCU. Each respondent was given the option to enter into a contest to win a $100 gift card upon completion of the survey. The survey call stated that the purpose of the survey was to “learn more about American politics and policies.”
Before taking the survey, students were randomly assigned to read one of two paragraphs bolstering their identity as it relates to politics: a paragraph about power (Paragraph A) or a paragraph about political knowledge (Paragraph B).
Paragraph A (power):
As a current college student, you are likely a member of Generation Z (Gen Z). Research shows that Gen Z:
is the largest and fastest growing generation in America
has as much if not more political power than older adults
doesn’t feel as confident in their political power as older adults
Trust yourself: you have the power needed to cast an informed ballot, enact change, and hold elected officials accountable.
Make sure to vote in November!
Paragraph B (knowledge):
As a current college student, you are likely a member of Generation Z (Gen Z). Research shows that Gen Z:
is the best-educated generation in America
has as much if not more political knowledge than older adults
doesn’t feel as confident in their political knowledge as older adults
Trust yourself: you have the knowledge needed to cast an informed ballot, enact change, and hold elected officials accountable.
Make sure to vote in November!
In addition to a variety of demographic questions, we asked students how well a series of statements applied to them prior to the treatments. These statements included concepts of political power, knowledge, engagement, and interest. After receiving the randomly assigned treatment bolstering their identity, students were asked to pledge to vote in the upcoming 2022 midterm election. If they did pledge to vote, the survey asked where they were planning to vote. If they did not pledge to vote, they were prompted to enter a text response explaining why they did not want to take the voting pledge. Resources were provided for respondents to register to vote or check their registration status and to find their polling place or request an absentee ballot.
Encouraging students to feel more knowledgeable or more powerful made some of them more likely to vote.
We wanted to know whether (and how) a message boosting students’ sense of their own political knowledge or their sense of political power increased their self-reported likelihood to vote. We have two findings of note: one among male respondents and the other among Republican respondents.
Encouraging men to feel more powerful made them more likely to vote. Among the 92 men in the sample, the mean agreement for the power treatment was higher than for the knowledge group at a statistically-significant level (p= 0.08526).
Encouraging Republicans to feel more knowledgeable made them more likely to vote: The 72 Republicans in the sample demonstrated a different effect: Republican students who read the paragraph about knowledge were more likely to pledge to vote than the power group at a statistically-significant level (p = 0.06748).
Raw data and null results are available in this public folder!
The Upshot? Boosting student self esteem could be an effective strategy for student voter mobilization.
Past studies by have shown that bolstering identities can be an effective tool to combat homophobia (Harrison and Michelson 2017) and transphobia (Michelson and Harrison 2020). This is our first attempt to answer our question about whether an identity bolstering message priming political power or political knowledge is effective at increasing student intention to vote. The results are promising - they suggest that boosting self esteem can increase intention to vote for some voters in certain circumstances. But more data is needed to establish a reliable theory about which messages are effective for which populations of students that practitioners can count on to produce results in the field. We look forward to working with members of the Student Vote Research Network to continue this promising line of research! Please reach out if you are interested in replicating or building upon this work.
Brian Harrison is founder and director of the Center for American Political Engagement (CAPE) and a Lecturer at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Jahnavi Rao is a fellow at the University of Maryland Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement and President of New Voters.
Sydney Fahn is a rising freshman at Georgetown University and serves at the Research Coordinator at New Voters.
The authors would like to thank Mike Dean of LeadMN, Alana N. Williams of Alabama State University, Jorim Edgar Reid Sr. of Morgan State University, Olivia J. Cook and Bala James Baptiste of Miles College and Patty Robinson of College of the Canyons for their contributions to this research.
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