The impact of party appeals on age differences in voting

Age is an increasingly significant driver of how citizens vote across established democracies. This paper contributes to the growing research in this area by assessing whether party appeals directed at younger voters have an impact on the growing age gap in party support. I test this in the context of the UK, one of the countries with the largest age gap in party support, with a survey experiment containing group appeals adapted from the Labour and Conservative 2019 electoral manifestos. These age-based appeals are both symbolic and substantive in nature, and cover both economic and cultural issues. Results show that appeals directed at the youth do not trigger a decrease in support from older voters. This is the case even for appeals containing young citizens’ cultural policy preferences. Moreover, while the Labour party has a clear advantage on youth support, the Conservative party is able to close this gap with proposals in line with the preferences of this cohort – especially around the issue of higher education funding.