Reinhart Ellen C, Turner Monique M, Markowitz David M, Carnahan Dustin
Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 5;20(9):e0330385. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330385. eCollection 2025.
Many people who are eligible to participate in the political process do not, suggesting the interests of a large portion of the electorate are not adequately represented in government. While some past work has found that subjective well-being is related to political engagement, less is known about which specific aspects of well-being might drive this effect. We propose and test the idea that self-perceived social contribution - the belief that one's life and everyday activities provide something of value to society - is related to multiple forms of political participation, likely because people who believe they provide something of value to society feel more integrated with society and therefore may be more likely to act on its behalf via political participation. Two correlational studies (N = 3,729) with data from distinct points in American politics (1996 and 2024) find that individuals with greater self-perceived social contribution were more likely to intend to vote, be willing to engage in activism, seek rather than avoid election information (Study 1), and donate to and volunteer for political causes (Study 2). Further, Study 2 provides empirical support for the previously theorized components of social contribution, providing evidence that self-efficacy and social responsibility underlie this construct in political contexts. Together, these studies identify a specific dimension of well-being that is related to multiple forms of political participation and suggests that fostering feelings of social contribution may promote democratic engagement.
许多有资格参与政治进程的人并未参与，这表明很大一部分选民的利益在政府中没有得到充分代表。虽然过去的一些研究发现主观幸福感与政治参与有关，但对于幸福感的哪些具体方面可能导致这种影响，人们了解得较少。我们提出并检验了这样一种观点，即自我感知的社会贡献——认为自己的生活和日常活动为社会提供了有价值的东西——与多种形式的政治参与相关，这可能是因为那些认为自己为社会提供了有价值东西的人感觉与社会联系更紧密，因此可能更有可能通过政治参与为社会行事。两项相关研究（N = 3729）使用了美国政治不同时间点（1996年和2024年）的数据，发现自我感知社会贡献更强的个体更有可能打算投票、愿意参与激进主义活动、寻求而非回避选举信息（研究1），以及为政治事业捐款和志愿服务（研究2）。此外，研究2为先前理论化的社会贡献组成部分提供了实证支持，证明自我效能感和社会责任感是这一概念在政治背景下的基础。总之，这些研究确定了幸福感的一个特定维度，它与多种形式的政治参与相关，并表明培养社会贡献感可能会促进民主参与。
