Do young people actually consider youth to be important in politics? Young people are underrepresented in political assemblies and age in politics is often regarded as irrelevant. However, recent studies suggest young people might have an affinity towards young politicians, using age as a cue to help guide them politically. Research on gender affinities moreover suggest that people who lack strong political convictions are more susceptible to affinity effects as they lack a political cue. Taken together, the results are not undisputed and show little in regards to how effects can be present in party-centered political systems. As such, this study aims at investigating the possibility of affinity effects being present in evaluations of the trait of being young for politicians in Sweden. Through regression analysis and interaction models, I find that young people consider youth to be more important for politicians than the rest of the population. Additionally, the effects grow larger for young people who lack strong political convictions. Together, it demonstrates that age affinity effects can be present in party-centered systems. More research is nevertheless needed to accurately map the effects in contexts with little candidate focus and how or if it can influence actual political behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-530180 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Johansson, Kajsa |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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