Interest through social involvement

Political interest is the basis for an individual’s informed and consistent engagement with politics, making it essential to understand its origins. In this article we focus on a largely understudied factor: social involvement, which is conceptualized in terms of social trust and collective identification, both reflecting individuals’ attachment to others. The primary aim is to explore the causal mechanisms through which social involvement shapes political interest. We propose three explanatory mechanisms formulated in terms of social empathy, common good, and political efficacy. Drawing on data from the 2017 European Values Survey, our analysis provides robust empirical support for the common good and empathy mechanisms. The findings suggest that social trust and collective identification enhance political interest by reinforcing the perceived value and significance of political involvement. The efficacy argument, however, received no support. Overall, the results underscore the significant role of trust in unfamiliar others and cosmopolitan identification.