Social Engagement for Oneself and Others: The Roles of Motivation, Emotion, and Political Ideology

The present work takes a multimethod approach to examine young U.S. adults’ engagement across political, religious, and civic activities. Of key interest was how their motivations to engage (internal vs. external), emotions when thinking about the cause (other-focused vs. self-focused), and political ideology related to their past and future engagement. We collected 1,000 survey responses and 30 interview transcripts of young adults ages 18 to 29 to identify patterns in these outcomes. We argue that although motivation of varying sources can drive engagement, the source of young people's motivation (internal vs. external) has critical implications for whether social engagement is short-lived or potentially persists into the future. In addition, the motivational and emotional reactions that the participants had to their engagement varied as a function of their political ideology. Implications for understanding the factors that may strengthen engagement and a deeper consideration of the nature of external motivation are discussed.