The unselfish vote
How does this affect peoples’ likelihood to go to the ballot box?
We were totally unprepared for the results, which may point the way to new strategies to encourage people to vote: particularly people for whom social and environmental issues are important:
Voting is as strongly related to peoples’ perception of what other Brits care about, as it is to their own values.
People who already care strongly about self-transcendence values are particularly sensitive, in their voting behaviour, to their perception of other peoples’ values.
It seems possible that if we are able to convey to people that their compatriots do in fact share their value priorities, we might well see voter turnout going up. And this effect would be seen most strongly among people who already themselves attach greater importance to self-transcendence values: the type of values, in other words, to which Corbyn seems so clearly to speak
So, if you see others as being selfish, you are less inclined to vote yourself. Voting is something we all do together, is it seen as a social, group benefit? Something we do to help ourselves and others? If you’re in it for number one, why do something that requires you to consider others perhaps? I wonder does this also apply to any civic duty or task, e.g. jury duty, estate clean up day participation.